Families escape before house collapses

It happens at least a couple times each year … and every time a house drops off its posts we are amazed that, despite the destruction, no one seems to get hurt.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
This coconut tree is the only thing holding up what’s left of the two storey wooden house at number twenty-two Guadalupe Street in Kings Park. The structure, one of the oldest buildings in the neighbourhood, fell just before nine on Wednesday night. Neighbours recall hearing a loud crashing sound as the structure dropped to the ground. The three adults and three children who lived at the residence managed to make it out just in time.

Robert Thomas, Left homeless after house collapsed
“Well I dah mi di last one out. When time I reach down yah soh, pan the second to di last step, the house drop. I da di last one come outta the house.”

The first floor collapsed on top of the lower flat where Martin Wade lived. Luckily for Wade, a B.D.F. soldier, he was away at work. Had he been home he would have been crushed under the pile of debris that now buries all of his possessions.

Martin Wade, Left Homeless after House Collapsed
“All mih clothes, everything. Only mih uniform clothes I left with and this weh I got on, nothing else I noh got. … All mih sheet, everything dih deh so, can’t get out nothing out deh.”

There is nothing that can be done to save the building which survived hurricane Hattie in 1961. Robert Thomas who lived upstairs says he knew the house had been deteriorating, but it was not until two days ago that he first noticed that the building had started to lean. So when the family heard the sound of wood cracking, they immediately knew what it was and quickly ran to safety. While Thomas did manage to retrieve most of the family’s belongings he still has no place to stay.

Robert Thomas
“Yap, because we need to store our household items and try to build up something in the back of the yard cause we can’t go leff all our stuff here. So I don’t know what will happen; no minister, nobody come to see us. So, I don’t know what will be the outcome.”

Jacqueline Godwin
“So right now the family is without a home?”

Robert Thomas
“Yap, we don’t know where we gonna sleep tonight. We don’t know.”
To make matters worse the crash also disturbed this colony of aggressive bees that had taken up residence to the back of the building. The bees have been preventing the family from removing furniture from inside the house.

Martin Wade
“Well ih rough, but we have to live with it soh, til we could do better—I noh know when— til somebody give we some help.”

If you can help the families in their recovery please pay them a visit at number twenty-two Guadalupe Street.