Still reeling from damages caused by a freak storm and Hurricane Elsa last year, an ailing St James resident is fearful her house will not withstand the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season which is expected to see above-average activity.
As a result, Maurine Webster, of Gilkes Village, Baywoods, Orange Hill, is pleading with authorities to quickly come to her aid.
In a tearful interview with Barbados TODAY on Thursday, the 58-year-old who is said to be on the waiting list of the Rural Development Commission (RDC) for repairs needed as a result of last year’s weather events, said whenever it rains, her bed gets wet and the galvanise roofing sheets “flap”.
The former carpenter who has suffered several strokes and heart attacks and has been unable to work for several years, said she also has to tie down the windows in her three-bedroom wood and wall house to keep them closed.
The inside of her roof is also dotted with patches of duct tape, which Webster said was in an effort to stop the rain from pouring in. However, that is not enough.
“I can’t stay in here like this. I can’t stay in here for hurricane season. If what happened to me in the hurricane before happen again, where am I going to turn to? I don’t have nuh good foot, this [left] hand is no good. Tell me where I gine go?” she cried.
Webster’s house was one of the roughly 2 100 houses reported as being damaged during the July 2021 freak storm. It was reported that around 500 houses were assessed as having to be rebuilt.
It is estimated that over 200 homes in the St Andrew constituency, which includes sections of Orange Hill, were affected by the storms last year. While the majority of those impacted are from the Chalky Mount area, it is not yet clear how many repairs have been completed.
Just last week, Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dwight Sutherland reported that after several hiccups, just about 50 per cent of repairs were completed and the rest should be done within about three months.
But for Webster, help is simply not coming fast enough, with another hurricane season having begun on Wednesday.
She said during the freak storm, “the galvanise came off, the ridge cap and everything come off, and during Elsa the back bedroom . . . all in there the galvanise come off. It was a Guyanese fellow who came and try his best and nail back what he could nail back.”
“I go to put pan here, bucket there, to catch water,” she complained.
Webster said after someone made a call on her behalf to the RDC, a lady promised that she would “put me on file”.
“Nobody come to me up to this present moment, and hurricane season starts again,” she lamented.
Webster said a friend also reached out to her Member of Parliament Dr Romel Springer, on her behalf, several months ago and he visited in April and promised he would send someone to repair the roof.
However, she complained that no one ever showed.
Instead, she said, “two fellows” who someone had asked to help her, came and put on galvanise sheets but they were still not secure.
“The galvanise is be keeping so much noise. I had to beg a fellow to go up there and place little blocks up there so, but the galvanise still lifting up and you will hear it when the wind blow. It don’t be easy,” Webster said.
“I need help badly,” said Webster, who is also afflicted by cataract and is taking over a dozen different medications.
“I would like my house fix, that is the honest truth. In my condition, I don’t want to go nowhere because I don’t know what can happen and I can’t run. I get short of breath when I have to walk even a short distance.”
Webster said if she was in a position to fix her property herself, she would not be depending on assistance from the Government.
“I am very, very ill. I cannot work. If I could work I could have done my house. I am a carpenter by trade. I dug wells, I went fishing, I cut down trees, I cut grass, but I am not in a stable condition now to help myself,” she cried.
She said while she has always had “trouble” with her heart, it was in 2012 that she suffered a major heart attack, and then a year later, she had her first stroke.
“After that, the heart attacks started to come on, come on, come on,” Webster added as she wiped away tears.
She also complained about not getting any satisfaction from the police whenever she phoned to complain about smoke from nearby fires and the roasting of breadfruits to the east of her property.
Efforts to reach RDC officials were successful up to news time.
However, when contacted, Springer told Barbados TODAY he was aware of Webster’s plight, confirming that he did send someone to help fix her roof and that he has been trying to reach out to the RDC on her behalf.
Sympathising with Webster, Springer acknowledged that while Webster was not the only one awaiting repairs to her home from the 2021 weather systems, he assured he was “working closely with the authorities to see how soon we can get it rectified”.
“I would be scared too if I had a house that was vulnerable and we are in for a more active hurricane season than we normally would,” he said.
marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb
