Terrified man ditches house for the night after landslide
Published:Saturday | November 18, 2023 | 12:09 AMAsha Wilks/Gleaner Writer
Sixty-nine-year-old Owen Stewart said that he is fearful to return to his home, which is perched on a slope just below the Mavis Bank main road in St Andrew, after a landslide heaped mounds of debris atop his zinc roof.
In an interview with The Gleaner on Friday afternoon, Stewart, who lives alone, explained how startled he was when the debris landed on his housetop in the wee hours of Friday morning.
“Last night when the rain falling, me couldn’t get to sleep, but me only just sit up and hear the stone dem a drop pon the house. Then afterwards, true me no have no light and no phone, me coulda only just sit down and look out [until] morning,” he explained.
He said that amid the uncertainty, he turned to heavens and expressed to God, “If so be it, let it be”, accepting that the landslide was an inevitable happening.
“But me give God thanks say nothing nuh wrong with me,” he added.
However, Stewart made it clear that he would not be staying in the home Friday night and that he would be venturing to stay at a friend’s house, who also lives in the same neighbourhood, as he continues to monitor what will eventually take place.
Stewart said that the structure of the home already shown signs of weakness, especially since the 5.6-magnitude earthquake on October 30. He added that a part of the flooring of his verandah had a sink from that time.
The elder has made an appeal for assistance to remove the debris.