St Mary river swallows tractor
Published:Wednesday | June 8, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
A yellow tractor bucket sat halfway up in the fast-flowing muddy Tiber River yesterday, bearing witness to the wrath of Mother Nature.
The owner said that up to late Monday night, the tractor was parked in its usual place - about 15 metres from where the Tiber makes its way to the Rio Nuevo in St Mary.
The heavy and continuous rains which have been drenching sections of the island since last week fuelled the Tiber overnight, resulting in it chopping away lands which it once caressed.
Vinton Francis, who along with his mother, Mervis Sampson, operates a block factory on a section of the Tiber-caressed lands in Farm Pen, Gayle, St Mary, suffered a massive hit.
"I have to be standing up very strong since morning because to look and see it in the river and can do nothing to take it out or anything like that, it is hard," Francis said.
Aside from the bucket, an object appearing to be a wheel was spotted in the river, and Francis and other onlookers theorise the tractor may have been cut in two or more pieces and the remainder tossed downstream.
tractor critical to operations
With a despondent look on his face, the young entrepreneur said the loss of the tractor would impact severely, as it was critical to his operations.
"It is very, very much important, because it is the tractor that we use to load the mixer. It is the only tractor that I have working," he said.
As workmen and neighbours stood perilously close to the edge of the breaking banks of what was once the factory yard, Francis told The Gleaner the seven persons he employs would now be out of a job as operations will have to cease for a while.
He also sought to defend the decision to locate the block factory so close to the river, telling The Gleaner that when the business started, the Tiber was at least 100 metres from the nearest point of the property.
He said the river has gobbled up more than two acres of land which was once factory yard.
"The river has been coming in for a long while. We called the member of parliament and all of them to come forward and assist us, and none of them have come to help us," he said.
He added: "Now the river come in, tek away the whole of the land and the block factory; it tek away mi tractor; now I can't work."
Francis said he was considering relocating the enterprise but was struggling with the possibility of huge costs to make the move.
"It is going to be a very hard task to get back. Right now, I feel like I should take off the block machine but it is going to take a lot to take off the machine, because it is going to take me about $2 million," he lamented.
Francis said he had only just resumed operations following an electrical short circuit at the premises which put the plant out of business for nearly one year.