Family in danger after massive landslide

Veteran journalist Devon Evans and his family are being forced to vacate their premises located at Top Road, St Ann’s Bay after a massive land slippage left several buildings precariously perched.

The slippage also blocked the St Ann’s Bay to Lime Hall main road on Sunday.

Ten family members are being affected including Evan’s children and grandchildren, the youngest being six years old.

No one was injured in the incident which occurred around midnight Saturday into early Sunday morning, after four days of rainfall across St Ann saturated the soil.

Evans has been urged by local authorities to vacate the premises, especially in light of continuing rainfall, which began affecting St Ann and other parishes from Wednesday.

“There is impending danger for two houses ... ,” mayor of St Ann’s Bay, Michael Belnavis, told THE STAR. “In fact, the fire department is saying they don’t even recommend him going in there to take out his clothes, so that should tell you the extent of the situation.”

Evans described the experience as frightening. 

“I was there watching television around midnight when all of a sudden I hear this crashing sound and when I got up and looked through the window, there were no trees in a place that was crowded with trees," he said. "The rain was continuing at the time so we had to get outside because we didn’t know what else to expect.”

Evans, who admitted to feeling threatened by the land slippage, said the family stayed up for most of the night and hardly got any sleep.

He is calling for an assessment to be done on the soil in that area for him to proceed.

Member of Parliament for North East St Ann, Shahine Robinson, who was on the scene, noted there are several slippages along the Gully Road to Lime Hall main road.

"This one is particularly precarious and challenging and we have been here from maybe as early as 4:30 this morning trying to get even one way traffic movin," she said.