One man is now homeless and several residents are left counting their losses after a squall destroyed several properties at Dazzle Housing Scheme on the East Coast Demerara on Monday.
When the News Room visited the area on Monday afternoon, one house was left without walls in the aftermath, while the roof of another was completely blown off.
Residents said they never saw the storm coming.
One resident, Joann, said at approximately 11:30hrs she was on a video call with her grandmother when she heard the screams of her neighbour and a “zoom” sound – that being strong winds.
“When I look out I see sand, grass, bush, blind, sheet, everything flying coming to my direction. By time I get up and tell my mother to pull down the main switch, by time I said that the whole roof went,” she said.
Joann lives with her family of four. Her two-year-old baby was left traumatized, and was wheezing hours after the freak storm.
Unable to compose herself to calculate her losses, she said, “The damage is too much”. She is hoping for assistance to rebuild her roof and can be contacted on telephone number 592-698-2585.
Another resident, Silvia Williams said she had to run for cover as seconds after she heard a loud banging she observed a zinc roof sheeting flying towards her.
She then ran to her front veranda and started screaming to alert her neighbours.
Ernest Hall, who was staying by his nephew’s house, was at the time cooking when he observed the house shaking and he went to look outside. Hall was forced to jump out of the house as the structure fell at the same time.
“I could’ve dead in this house here, I had to jump down. I was cooking, all the pot blow away, all the rice blow away,” Hall recalled.
His nephew, Neville Hall was returning from Linden when he received a phone call notifying him that his house was destroyed.
“This is my only place I got to stay,” Hall said, noting that he is open to assistance and can be contacted on telephone number 592–662-6154.
His losses consist of a music system, television, refrigerator, weeding machine, among other things.
The squall also destroyed properties in Bare Root, East Coast Demerara, the community next to Dazzle.
