Rural St Andrew residents marooned after road collapse

The journey to McGlaushin from Brandon Hill or Golden Spring, St Andrew, has been treacherous for years, with extremely narrow and broken roads forcing residents to sometimes walk for miles to access public transportation.

But, currently, they are completely cut off following a huge land slippage on Saturday, following heavy rains associated with a weather system. Yesterday, THE STAR team was assisted into the area, and even the four-wheel drive Toyota Prado struggled to manoeuvre the compromised roadway. What should have been a 10-minute ride, turned into a nail-biting 27-minute journey which took us past several mini landslides and breakaways. But those landslides were minute compared to the massive road collapse in McGlaushin. Residents wore despondent faces especially since most were unable to make preparations for the tropical depression that has been lashing the island with heavy rainfall.

Ezra Willis was among a group of persons who stood 10 footsteps away from where the main road caved in. Willis, who operates a shop from inside a container, said had he not relocated his business place, all would have been lost.

"The container was along the roadway so after Hurricane Beryl, I walked around the back of the container and I could push an entire broomstick way down. So I knew it was time to move it. I kept telling the people that I knew the road was going to collapse but I never expect this. Every time the rain fall, it would get worse," he said.

Willis said on Saturday, heavy rainfall pounded the district which caused a split in the road. He stated that a vehicle fell in the ditch and the driver had to be rescued. Approximately an hour later, the entire roadway collapsed.

"Honestly, I wasn't surprised because I expected this. I was watching it all day Saturday because water was going into the crack. I have a farm house and it lean it to one side and I have lost some of my crops including a breadfruit tree, plantain, banana and others. Everybody just stand still from morning," Willis said.

Yesterday, Member of Parliament for St Andrew West Rural, Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, along with members of the National Water Commission, National Works Agency, and the geological department visited the landslide. A group of men were observed trying to create a walkway for pedestrians. A woman told THE STAR that the entire area is marooned.

"People don't want you to walk through dem yard and yuh can't blame them. There is a shop here but sometimes it don't have what yuh want, and yuh walk up the road to the square in Prospect. But dat can't happen now, so we just left here to suffer. The road did already can't walk on and it terrible on the old people dem. Yuh have people up here in them 90s and dem nuh ramp fi bawl for dem knee. The road bad from Prospect side as well so any way yuh tek it, problem deh deh," she said, crying out for a new road.

Due to the inclement weather, classes were moved to online but Simone, a poultry farmer, said she has no idea when her children will be able to attend face to face sessions.

"We have to make our children come out from 5:30 to get a taxi, and if dem go school in town, they have to leave out earlier. Now that the road break, I don't know when the children are going back to school because there is no road. Usually they have to walk about 15 minutes to get a taxi because dem not coming dis side and now it worse because dem can't walk," Simone said.