Freak storm
… several homes destroyed, emergency relief expected today
A woman, who was seven months pregnant, is now dead while several others are injured after a house collapsed at Jawalla, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), during a freak storm on Friday. An emergency team from the Regional Democratic Council’s office has been dispatched to the village to conduct a preliminary investigation, with emergency relief expected today.
Dead is 29-year-old Marsha Jordan. She is the mother of two girls, ages three and 11. It is unclear whether the father of the children was around when the incident occurred but this publication was informed that a relative is housing the children.
According to reports, at around 16:00h, heavy winds, lightning and thunderstorms wreaked havoc on the Amerindian village, damaging several houses in the process.
Regional Chairman Gordon Bradford when contacted confirmed that one of the houses that collapsed was responsible for the woman’s death. She died immediately after the collapse and was removed from the debris.
“I got a call late yesterday afternoon and I was told that a storm passed through Jawalla and it damaged several houses, one house collapsed with a woman and her child and the woman died but the child survived,” Bradford related.
The Regional Chairman said a resident from the village contacted him and informed him of the incident. He added that he was informed that the stormed moved in the direction of Phillipai village, noting that this is the first instance of such a storm.
“We have a team of three persons who we sent to do an initial assessment and feed us back the information but we are yet to hear from them. The thing is there is great difficulty to get information from villages in the Upper Mazaruni area,” he said.
According to Bradford, the team reported that four houses have been destroyed, while several business places and private homes have been partially damaged. He added that sanitary blocks at the Nursery and Primary schools have been totalled.
He told Guyana Times that immediately after hearing the report, he activated the Regional Disaster Risk Management plan and that the committee has met and they are monitoring the situation with the team on the ground.
The preliminary report was forwarded to the Civil Defence Commission and the regional administration would request assistance where and when necessary, the Chairman related.
Deputy Director General of the Civil Defence Commission, Major Kester Craig, told this publication that they are monitoring the incident and keeping abreast with the regional administration. He added that they would be mobilising a team to render assistance to the administration. (Lakhram Bhagirat)
