Cloreen?Highland is counting her lucky stars today.
When several boulders and other rocks came tumbling down from a rock face next to her St Andrew home, she was not in her usual spot sweeping the ground around the house.
“All I?hear was one set of kadooment, and I?rush out to see all of these rocks coming down next to the house. I?was real frighten,” Highland said, pointing out that the only reason she was not outside was because she had the flu.
The 69-year-old woman, who has been renting the house at Mose Bottom, St Andrew, since 1960, said for several years the rocks had been breaking off because of land slippage.
“For years this rock was dropping down. This ain’t now happen. You should see my backyard – it is full of rocks,” she said.
The woman, who lives with her son and grandson, said she had been to several agencies since 2005 asking for assistance.
“People from the Rural Development Commission [RDC] and the Ministry of Housing come here and take pictures. A man from the RDC?come last year and tell me that it needs urgent attention and that I?have to move.
“The people at Housing tell me to bring my rent book to them. I?took it to them, as well as a letter from my landlord stating that I have never owed rent, but up to now I have not heard anything,” she lamented.
Highland also pointed out that the land slippage was taking place not only at the rock face but also on the land around the house, which had started to breakaway too.
“I would like to move from here before this take my life. It is a good thing that I?had the flu because if I had come out here this morning these rocks would have licked me down.”
Cathy Lowe, secretary at the St Andrew constituency office of representative George Payne, produced four letters written to various agencies since 2005.
She said the letters had been sent to the Chief Town Planner, the Soil Conservation Commission and the Ministry of Housing.
