BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – NEWS reaching this publication states that eight people, including a two-year-old, were confirmed dead yesterday (Dec. 25) and three individuals are missing following heavy rains on Christmas Eve, which triggered massive floods and landslides that damaged many homes and roads in St. Vincent.
According to Caribbean360, the heavy rains and strong winds were blamed on the moisture and instability associated with a trough system that had affected several Caribbean countries, most notably Dominica and St. Lucia, where at least five people were confirmed dead.
The online media house stated that the loss of life was most significant in North Leeward, in northwest St. Vincent, where five members of one household died when a slope collapsed unto their Rose Bank house.
One person died in Byera on the western side of the country and a 43-year-old man, Desmond Wilson, died after he was swept away by floodwaters on Tuesday night in the South Leeward community of Vermont.
Also, the body of 18-year-old Kesla James was recovered in the Central Leeward community after she was swept away along with her two-year-old niece in Cane Grove.
And rescue teams were still searching for 12-year-old Inka Jack and Josell Small, an employee of Buccament Bay Resort, both of whom were swept away by floodwaters at separate locations in Buccament Bay also on Tuesday night.
“It is not a Merry Christmas at all. Basically, the mood of the people who are around here, having seen the devastation down here, a family of five succumbed in Rose Bank, has left a sombre mood on the village there,” Caribbean360 reported journalist and lawyer Carlos James as saying.
James, who is vying to be the ruling Unity Labour Party’s candidate for North Leeward in the next general elections, told the (CMC) that a lot of people were out supporting each other and water and electricity were not restored to that area, which is nation’s largest constituency.
The National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) said that 50 percent of consumers islandwide were without pipe-borne water and the Central Water and Sewerage Authority (CWSA) stated that residents of the southern swath of the country - from Layou, South Leeward, Kingstown and its environs right through to Villa – would be “without pipe-borne water for an extended period from today, Christmas Day”.
James also told the online media house that roads were blocked in several areas of the constituency.
“The traffic there is rendered immobile for now,” he said, adding, “(There is) a lot of housing and livestock damage in Spring Village.”
He said the only bypass road to and from Kingstown “took some beating”, while houses in Charles Village were flooded out.
Yesterday, NEMO said that its director, Howie Prince and acting Prime Minister Girlyn Miguel were visiting the affected areas and that at least 27 people were in an emergency shelter at the Buccament Bay Secondary School and the figure is expected to increase as more people seek shelter away from the floods that have made bridges at Mt. Young and Caratal along with the road to Belle Isle and Petit Bordel impassable.
The organisation also said that eight homes were destroyed and 10 others damaged and it expects more as the assessment of the damaged caused by the rains is continuing.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Prime Minister said that Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who was visiting Europe, had cut short his trip and is expected to return to St. Vincent today and tour the affected areas.
