A Martin’s Bay family is blaming Government for disrupting their family unit during a vulnerable time in their lives.
The Norvilles were among ten families in the St John village, most of them related, who were removed from their homes by the Rural Development Commission (RDC) when Hurricane Tomas struck Barbados in 2010.
The hurricane caused a fissure in the ground which led to cracks in the homes located in a particular section of the Martin’s Bay community. Government declared the area unsafe and relocated the affected families to temporary homes.
Ann-Joy Norville and her mother Lorent as well as other family members were among the displaced families. Her two-storey family home as well as her mother’s house which was attached to hers, were extensively damaged with cracks throughout.
It was a terrifying moment when they realised their house was damaged, and Ann-Joy said they felt relieved when Government officials arrived at their doorstep to rescue them.
“It was still raining and they told us not to take anything, especially big furniture,” Ann-Joy recalled.
While she and her daughter, who was pregnant at the time, were placed in a small house in St Thomas, her mother and brother were sent to another location in St Philip and later relocated to another rental property in St John.
“The Rural Development Commission told us that we were only going to be there six months,” she said, adding that officials from the National Housing Corporation also informed them that they would be given first priority for land at Poole, St John, under the Government’s 500-lot programme, so that they could rebuild their homes.
But Norville lamented that four years on, her family was still scattered “all over the place”; that Government had failed to fulfil its promise to give them land and her mother was now in jeopardy of being evicted because the Welfare Department stopped paying rent for her since April last year.
“Right now this situation is stressful. All they are telling us is Government does not have any money. The water and the light have been disconnected where my mother is living because Government has not paid the bills.
Her daughter, she said, was also forced to move out of the house they occupied because it was too small.
“I have one daughter and she had to up and leave with my two grandchildren – I mean we are all separated. They just separate a whole family like that and never look back.”
She said her family had also lost most of their possessions.
“I had a king-sized bed, televisions in every room, a lot of furniture and when this thing happen we asked people to keep some of our things in storage because they told us only six months. Some of the people threw out our things. Right now my mother has nothing.”
Pointing out that her 64-year-old mother suffered from high blood pressure, diabetes and acute acid reflux, Ann-Joy said it hurt that she could not care for her mum because she lived so far away.
“I have been living with my mum all these years taking care of her and it is a problem that I am in St Thomas and she is in St John. I hardly see my mum . . . .”
What she finds most disturbing, however, is that Government has not given them the land at Poole which she was willing to purchase and rebuild a family home.
“We are willing to buy the land and build back a house for our family but every time we go to the NHC they are telling us no land is available; yet I see people have moved into Poole and homes are being built.”
Pointing out that the house at Martin’s Bay, St John was her dream home which she had spent thousands of dollars building over time, Ann-Joy said that while her family’s lives had been disrupted, paros had moved into her damaged home.
“It hurts me to see that the paros are living in my house happy while me and my family are out here suffering . . . .”
When contacted, an official at the Rural Development Commission said they would investigate their records and respond to the family’s allegations.
The official at the NHC who the family said was dealing with their case could not be reached because he is on leave.