Senior narrowly escapes injury after tree falls on house
Published:Tuesday | October 27, 2020 | 12:19 AMCecelia Campbell-Livingston/Gleaner Writer
The tree still sitting atop the house of 80-year-old Lola Johnson yesterday was a stark reminder of what she escaped while reclining in her living room Sunday morning.
Johnson told The Gleaner that she sat paralysed with fear as the frightful event unfolded in Smithsville.
“Mi hear something tear dung and just siddung and fold mi hand,” she said.
When she looked up, she saw an object protruding through the roof of the house, and soon, “a whole heap a water start come dung”.
“Mi sey a mus one tree fall dung,” she related, sharing that she felt nervous but just continued to fold her hands.
She soon began to feel weak, but just held her hands tight and closed her eyes, she told The Gleaner.
Yesterday, her son-in-law Alvis Farquharson said that when he had heard of the incident and went to visit Johnson, she was shaken but still refused to leave the house.
“Mi still see her right here suh and mi seh, ‘Granny, yuh caan stay here so. The house will come down pon yuh,” he said, persuading her to stay at his house.
The island has been experiencing inclement weather for some time, the latest bout due to outer bands of Tropical Storm Zeta passing close to the island.
Forecasters believe it will become a hurricane before hitting Mexico’s resort-dotted Yucatan Peninsula and the US Gulf Coast in coming days.
Zeta was the earliest named 27th Atlantic storm recorded in an already historic hurricane season.
While Zeta was over open ocean on Sunday, Jamaica and Honduras were getting heavy rains because the system is so large.