Like hapless fish, residents battle Big Pond floods

It was just after 2:30 on Tuesday afternoon and shopkeeper Latoya Campbell was perched on a stool outside her business place in Bannister, St Catherine, just like she had done so many times before.

However, this wasn't like any other day. Not with a nearby gully in spate and the house attached to the shop flooded, with water still rising in her backyard.

With her three-year-old son Hasani sleeping in the house, Campbell divided her time between checking on him, monitoring the water level in the bedroom, and getting regular updates on Tropical Storm Grace via YouTube.

The inundation happened in just around five minutes, she said.

“Me just haffi take the things outa the glass case, biscuit, bread, bun and cosmetics. I had to take out because the same thing happened during Hurricane Elsa and lot of them get wet and spoiled,” Campbell told The Gleaner.

Campbell said she had been flooded out on at least four occasions over the last two years. She blamed the overflow from the Big Pond, which is located upstream her place and on which the National Works Agency had reportedly spent some $20 million in a stopgap measure to mitigate flooding of the main road during heavy rainfall.

Despite the flooded roadway in the vicinity of the infamous Big Pond, motorists, including many taxis, braved the corridor.

The businesswoman, however, has doubts about the effectiveness of the remedial works.

“It was supposed to be fixed. They started it, but I don't know if it finish. As you can see, even if it finish, a Big Pond this water a come from. Every time rain fall, until Big Pond fix, a so here so a go stay,” she said, pointing to her flooded backyard.

Campbell took comfort in the fact that it was not raining consistently, allowing for the water to run off and out of the house before the water levels would rise again, flooding the building yet again. This had been a constant cycle throughout the day.

The shopkeeper said she was unaware of the intense rainfall the island was expected to experience until Tuesday morning.

Fortunately for Campbell, her son's father was around when the downpour started and was able to help hoist most of the furniture off the floor.

Still, Campbell planned to sleep at the house Tuesday night and was prepared to keep an eye on the rainfall and water levels inside the house.

And just in case of emergency, she had a bag packed with clothes to evacuate in the darkness of night.