Mother Nature threw its marine muscle at the houses in Cattlewash, St Joseph, on Thursday, tearing down fences, washing away sand and leaving Sargassum seaweed strewn on properties.
The force of the waves was so fearsome that “it sounded like a freight train during the night”, resident Don Jackson told the DAILY NATION.
Jackson, a Canadian who has been visiting Barbados for the last 15 years and who was staying at one of the beachfront properties, said he had never seen the waves that ferocious.
He added that what made it stranger was the winds were light – he estimated them to be between nine to ten kilometres – and there was no rain. But the waves were eight to ten feet high.
“They were crashing right past the big rock. All there was completely surrounded; we couldn’t even walk behind it,” Jackson said, pointing to the imposing natural phenomenon.
“It took out the whole fence over there and left all the sand by the house. It took out piece of our fence and washed all the seaweed in by us.”
He said he was not concerned for his welfare, as he was safe in the upper level of the house, but the roar of the waves was tremendous, especially during the night.
“It only started to die down late [Friday] afternoon,” he said, adding one good thing about the high surf was that it cleaned the beach of the Sargassum seaweed.
Carl Rayside, who has owned beachfront property near the big famous rock at Cattlewash since 1973, said the waves “went around the house and removed the fencing around the pool and left sand in it”.
“The water went past the house where the cars parked, so it was quite a lot of mess. It eroded the sand right up to our wall and some of the water went in the house,” he said.
Rayside, however, said the property was no stranger to rough seas as the surf usually encroached during the bad weather in the hurricane season.
“Quite a few times every couple of years it happens, but not this early. But what we did the last time, we built solid wall from deep down in the sand and then put a small fence on top of that, so it didn’t move the wall,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the Meteorological Office has issued a high surf advisory and a small craft warning with effect from Sunday evening until Wednesday. (HLE)