The Tribune

By TANEKA THOMPSON

Tribune News Editor

tmthompson@tribunemedia.net

RONALD Woodside was at home in his seaside house on South Beach Road with his parents on Thursday, when waves about “four feet” high burst into the building, forcing the family to flee to the second floor.

Mr Woodside, 23, said the powerful waves surged through the back door, which faces the sea, before knocking out two windows. The devastating storm surge from Hurricane Matthew “ripped up” sheetrock in his home, leaving him, his mother and father, with little time to escape to the second floor.

The family did not evacuate the home ahead of the storm despite warnings from officials, but were forced to flee on Thursday as Hurricane Matthew pounded the structure.

His family, like many other residents in the South Beach area who live near the coast, were sorting through debris on Friday, trying to salvage what belongings they could.

“It was traumatic,” he told The Tribune, as he gazed sombrely at his home. “Our back door facing the sea, the water came through the door, and then it started to move furniture around and then it took away the front door and it damaged a lot of sheetrock on the lower floor.

“The water was about four feet. It came through the door and then the two windows on that side to the sea and then starting ripping up the sheetrock, moving the fridge, stove, furniture. We live in a two-storey house so we just gone up to the second floor. We were trying to secure the house a lil’ bit more from getting break up more. We did what we could do. Where the waves was hitting the house so hard, we could feel the house rocking. So we just decided to evacuate.”

He said that, luckily, a relative who lived nearby on East Street South came in a truck to evacuate the trio from the home.

Dion Duncombe, whose house sits a few yards away from the coast, said he has not seen a storm of this magnitude in the 18 years he has lived in the area. He said he and his family have bunkered down in their home during previous hurricanes, but did not take the chance this time.

He said when he returned home to assess the damage, he met water “more than four feet” high inside. “We evacuated before the hurricane (on) Wednesday,” he said. “In the past 18 years I think we had a few storms that came by. In 2001, that was the worst one that came by before this one, but the water level only came as far as the road from the sea. We stayed through that one. This one we knew for sure was going to be devastating.”

Ahmad Hamilton, another resident of South Beach Road, was one of several area residents The Tribune spoke with who voluntarily evacuated before Matthew hit.

He was busy clearing out water-damaged items from his home when The Tribune arrived. He said when he first came home, he found about two feet of water inside his house. He said his furniture and other belongings were likely damaged, but optimistically expressed that all was not lost and that it could have been worse.

The stories were similar in the area of Yamacraw Beach Estates in eastern New Providence, where many people who had fled in anticipation of dangerous storm surges, had returned to assess the damage wrought by Matthew.

One woman, who did not want to be named, said she evacuated Wednesday afternoon. When she returned to her house on Thursday night, the water through her street was “knee high”.

“We had a lot of flooding. Before we left here, we put the furniture up higher, some still got messed up,” she said. “I have never seen a storm like this. We stayed here during Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Michelle, never seen anything like this.”

Matthew, a category 4 storm, pummelled New Providence on Thursday. Earlier in the week, government officials urged persons living near the sea, and especially the southern coast, to evacuate in anticipation of dangerous storm surges and heavy flooding.