Businesswoman hails bold rescue by cops
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Businesswoman Tyiesheta Bunting is one of several small business operators in Montego Bay who suffered millions of dollars of losses during the heavy rains that pelted the resort city last Wednesday, resulting in widespread flooding and a trail of destruction in several areas.
During the heavy downpour which lasted for about four hours, the North Gully, which runs in close proximity to her business place, True Reflections, located on a section of William Street, overflowed its banks, dumping thousands of gallons of water as well as debris on her establishment.
Bunting said she lost everything in her fledgling business, which she started a year ago.
“The water carried away everything — grocery items, a wide assortment of meats, thousands of dollars from my day’s sales, fridges…” she told the Jamaica Observer.
But, in spite of her losses, Bunting is grateful that her life, her children’s lives, and other people who were at her business place were spared — thanks to two policemen, Corporal Clovis Francis and Constable Michael Fisher, who have been working in the area for quite sometime.
Describing Francis, a member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force for more than 15 years, as a hero, a teary-eyed Bunting related how the policemen rescued them.
“We were in here (business place). my children, ages six and nine, and their seven-year-old friend were watching TV during the rain and we saw a little water coming into shop. But we took that for nothing because most times when it rains heavily, water come in a little. So we close the shop door and soon after we start to see water rising in the shop. Pretty soon we realised that it was the wrong thing wi do because we shouldn’t have locked ourselves in the building. We tried to climb on the shelves, then we saw a fridge coming down to block the door. Then we realised that we were trapped in the building and the water rising up.
“My children dem started to shout, ‘mommy, all of us going to drown and daddy not here to save us. We going to die, we going to die…’” Bunting told the Sunday Observer.
“I was terrified…. I wet up myself three times, I saw mi death. Mi bawl, mi bawl when mi see sey mi and my pickney dem going to dead.”
Bunting said minutes later she heard the policemen, with whom she is familiar, shouting out “ get out, get out, you going to drown, you going to drown, you going to die”.
She said the policemen, with the help of a man known as ‘Rasta’, used their bodies to force the door open, grabbed the children, put then on their backs and swam with them to a higher ground at a nearby building.
“The officers them need an award. if it was a day when they were not here, I would not be able to tell you what happened,” said Bunting.
Francis told the Sunday Observer that he and his colleague braved the rain to see what was happening at Bunting’s business place because there are usually a number of children there.
He noted that their greatest challenge during the rescue effort was to get the metal door to the shop open.
“It was not a board door, it’s metal, and when we heard the children crying, we knew we had to do something,” said Francis.
Acknowledging that they saved a few lives on Wednesday, Francis stressed that “we are here to protect and serve”.
After their rescue operation on William Street, Francis and his colleague headed for the Barnett Street Police Station in Montego Bay to ascertain how their colleagues had fared.
Meanwhile, Bunting is pondering her next move.
“Right now I have lost everything in the shop; I don’t have a dollar, everything washed out or damage. Even two brand new fridges that I bought recently mash up. I need some help right now,” she emphasised.
On Thursday, Government officials led by Prime Minister Andrew Holness toured sections of the affected areas in Montego Bay to get a first-hand view of the damage to the city’s infrastructure, and the impact of the flooding on individuals and businesses.
A day later, Opposition spokesman on tourism and People’s National Party vice- president in charge of Region Six, Dr Wykeham Mc Neill, and other members of the party, toured sections of the affected areas.