PORT OF SPAIN – Tragedy struck in Santa Cruz Friday when a 76-year-old pensioner was buried alive as a landslide crashed into his home.It took residents, with the assistance of fire officers, more than six hours before the body of Geraldo Greene was recovered from the rubble at his La Canoa Road home.The landslide crashed into one of the kitchens of Greene’s two-storeyed home situated on a hill.Scores of young men from the village came together and worked tirelessly to find the victim. Differences were put aside as the young men, armed with shovels and chainsaws, cut and dug their way into the rubble.When the Express visited the area around 2:15 p.m. the majority of fire officers at the scene looked on while residents did all the digging and clearing of the rubble.Walls situated at various portions of the upper portion of the house were knocked down with sledge hammers, which allowed members of the rescue team to push out the excess slush and mud from inside the house.Persistent rains in the area over this week caused a large portion of land and a bamboo patch to crash into the house, occupied by a family of eight.The victim’s stepson Rudolph Britto broke down in tears as he recounted the tragic incident to members of the media.He said he was alerted by the screams of his mother Sylvia Greene while he was walking up the hill towards his home.“While my mother bawling, my mother was telling me that my stepfather in the kitchen; when I gone in the kitchen, the bamboo patch come down, and she tell me he in the next kitchen, and when I was feeling for him, I knew I could not get him,” Britto said.He said two of his neighbours, responded almost immediately, but he was not satisfied with the response from other villagers, who stood in the road and watched.“The whole road full with people, and you know someone buried [alive], and everybody stand up by the road like if it is a show.”Britto described Greene as the best father anyone could have. He said his father taught him a lot of values and took care of him ever since he was seven years old. (Express)
