Eight people, including a two-year-old child, were confirmed dead Wednesday and three remain missing after heavy rains overnight triggered massive floods and landslides damaging roads and houses on St. Vincent.
The heavy rains and strong winds have been blamed on the moisture and instability associated with a trough system that has affected several Caribbean countries, most notably Dominica and St. Lucia where at least five people have been confirmed dead.
The loss of life was most significant in North Leeward, in northwest St. Vincent, where five members of one household died when a slope collapsed unto their house in Rose Bank.
One person died in Byera on the western side of the country and 43-year-old Desmond Wilson died after being swept away by floodwaters Tuesday night in the South Leeward community of Vermont.
The body of 18-year-old Kesla James, who, along with her two-year-old niece, was washed away in Cane Grove, was recovered in the Central Leeward community.
Rescue teams were still searching for 12-year-old Inka Jack and Josell Small, an employee of Buccament Bay Resort, both of whom were swept away by floodwaters at separate locations in Buccament Bay Tuesday night, were still unaccounted for.
“It is not a Merry Christmas at all. Basically, the mood of the people who are around here, having seen the devastation down here, a family of five succumbed in Rose Bank, has left a sombre mood on the village there,” said journalist and lawyer Carlos James, who is vying to be the ruling Unity Labour Party’s candidate for North Leeward in the next general elections.
“A lot of persons are out and supporting each other,” he told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), noting however that water and electricity had not been restored to the area, the nation’s largest constituency.
The National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) said that 50 per cent of consumers island-wide were without pipe-borne water and the Central Water and Sewerage Authority (CWSA) has said that residents of the southern swath of the country -- from Layou, South Leeward, Kingstown and its environs right through to Villa – would be “without pipe-borne water for an extended period from today, Christmas Day”.
James said that roads were blocked in several areas of the constituency.
“The traffic there is rendered immobile for now,” he said, adding, “(There is) a lot of housing and livestock damage in Spring Village.”
He said the only bypass road to and from Kingstown “took some beating”.
Houses in Charles Village were flooded out, James further said. “So, quite a lot of infrastructural damage,” he said.
In Cane Grove and Buccament Bay, there was also mourning, as the body of 18-year-old Kesla James was recovered and hope for finding alive the three other missing persons faded.
Kesla was among several persons, including her sister, Colleen James, who left their mother’s house to seek refuse after it began to flood.
Colleen, who lives in Canada and is visiting with her four children for Christmas, told reporters that they decided to leave the house after police, whom they had contacted by telephone, had advised them to try to do so.
She said that her mother and another person in the house decided to stay.
Curt “Kebra” Clifton and his friend Junior Cambridge helped to rescue Stella and one of her children.
Clifton said he and Cambridge were looking outside at the strange, almost continuous, flashing of lightning.
“When we looked around the house, we saw people and heard voices. We looked across by the neighbour and saw three persons floating away down to the river.”
He said they went outside in chest high water and were able to rescue Colleen and one of her daughters.
A few hours later Kesla’s body was recovered, sandwiched against a wall near a large culvert laden with debris.
After her sister’s body was taken away, Colleen told reporters what happened after they left her mother’s house the night before.
“We all were going together, but the water came down heavy and it just turned us over,” she said, adding that they were being submerged by water as they attempted to regain their footing.
She said one of her sons grabbed onto her leg, while another held unto her uncle.
They were able to make it to a wall then onto a tree, where they were later rescued.
The uncle, Glenny James, told reporters that he had a child under each of his arms and were holding on “for death and life”.
But he fell as the water got heavier and then the electricity went out, throwing the place into darkness.
On the coast, in Buccament Bay, Caston Barber of Questelles, was hoping that his 12-year-old daughter, Iynca Jack would be found alive.
The 12-year-old had gone to Buccament Bay to spend Christmas with her mother, and the two of them were swept away, but her mother was found alive in a tree, Barber told CMC.
A few hundred yards away, on the beach just outside Buccament Bay Resort, Ricky Small was waiting for the Coast Guard to turn up to conduct a search for his wife, Joselle.
He told reporters that he was told that his wife was swept away as she and two of her co-workers made their way home from work.
He said one of Joselle’s co-workers said that they walked to the edge of the road because of the flooding and the road gave way.
Two of them fell over and Joselle was washed away.
They incident took place outside the resort, where two vehicles remained partly submerged under water on Wednesday.
At the resort, access to the beach was restricted, because, a security officer said, electrical cables were exposed there.
In the interior, agricultural district of Vermont in the Buccament Valley, Blessing Williams told CMC that her brother, Desmond Wilson, 43, was having a drink with some friends then left to go home around midnight Tuesday.
He was washed away by floodwaters and his body was found along the riverbank on Wednesday.
In addition to the loss of life, there was extensive damage in the Cane Grove-Buccament Bay district and other areas of the country.
Harold Fraser, a resident of Cane Grove, told CMC that he estimates up to EC$300,000 in damage as a result of the flooding of the ground floor of his home, where his business is located.
One of his vehicles was washed away and the deluge damaged another.
Retaining and fencing walls on many properties had collapsed, and some persons had begun to clean up Wednesday afternoon.
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who is visiting Europe, has cut short his trip and will return to St. Vincent on Thursday, the office of the Prime Minister has said.
He will tour the affected areas on his return.
The National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) said Wednesday that its director, Howie Prince and acting Prime Minister, Girlyn Miguel were visiting affected areas.
NEMO said at least 27 people were in emergency shelter at the Buccament Bay Secondary School and the figure is expected to increase as more people seek shelter away from the floods that have made bridges at Mt. Young and Caratal along with the road to Belle Isle and Petit Bordel impassable.
NEMO said that eight homes have been destroyed and 10 others damaged and it expects more as the assessment of the damaged caused by the rains is continuing.
The Health disaster Committee has been activated to access the impact to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital and the health system in general.
NEMO has also encouraged the public to continue to be vigilant in flood proned and areas where there have been landslides.
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