By DENISE MAYCOCK
Tribune Freeport Reporter
dmaycock@tribunemedia.net
RESIDENTS in Hudson Estates, Grand Bahama, are very concerned about the large piles of debris that have been left in that private subdivision since the passage of Hurricane Dorian seven weeks ago.
They complained that the mounds of debris and garbage lining their streets pose a serious health and environmental hazard for families there. They say they are being overrun by rodents, flies, roaches, and mosquitoes.
After surviving the worst storm-related flooding in their homes in decades, Hudson Estates residents lost all of their possessions. Damaged furnishings, appliances, and mattresses have been thrown outdoors.
The area - made up of three subdivisions - was among the hardest hit areas on Grand Bahama.
"My concern is that there is a lot of garbage, and no one coming to move it," said a resident who asked to be identified as Ms Davis. 'It is getting ridiculous because we have all kinds of flies, roaches, (odour) - everything is coming out because of the garbage piled up around here."
The elderly resident thinks the debris should have been removed by now.
"It's over a month now and I think someone should come and do something for us. We are under attack by rodents that are coming now - everything coming now because of the garbage."
Ms Davis has lived in Hudson Estates for over a decade. The flooding she experienced with Dorian was something she had never seen before.
"The water was to my neck in my house - that's how high it was. We could not get no rescue and then the sewerage was in the water in your house," she recalled.
"We had (a) baby and everything and - we try to go in the manhole but it break down. So, we had to swim through the water. I fall in the water five times and somebody had to come lift me, and tote me, so I would not drown - that's how high the water was. I never seen nothing like this before in my whole life," Ms Davis said.
Another Hudson Estates resident, who gave her name as Ms Gilbert, is also frustrated by the situation.
"It's too long and something needs to be done - we have an infestation of rodents and flies and something needs to be done," she stressed.
"We did not want this storm. You think we wanted to throw away our stuff and have to replace it? Many of us cannot afford to pay to have these things removed so we need someone to come in and assist us in moving these debris, like now."
Ms Gilbert, who has lived in the community for 30 years, is very concerned about the safety of the children.
With refrigerators and other appliances outdoors, she said rainwater can settle in them and breed mosquitoes, which "spread all kinds of diseases."
"Then, there are rodents coming into people's homes through the windows - it is really bad," she said.
Ms Gilbert had four feet of water in her house. "We had to sit and wait in that water and sewerage for two days, and we lost everything, including two vehicles and two trucks."
She also said the debris is obstructing the road, making it difficult to drive in the area.
Another resident, Ms Pinder, said that the general appearance of the area is "depressing."
"Coming home to it is very depressing, and now the scent of it is unbearable. So, we really need someone to help through here to move the debris," she said. "I don't know who is responsible. They say this is a private area, but the developers don't seem to be interested in garbage removal, so we are appealing to someone to help us."
Ms Gardiner, a resident of 19 years, said this is her third hurricane since living in the area. She and her neighbours are eager to have some sort of normalcy again, if not in their homes.
"Since Dorian no one has come to pick up anything. It is a hazardous situation because we have asthmatic children and lots of elderly residents who are diabetic and hypertensive living here - it is just not healthy."
She also had four to five feet of flooding in her three-bedroom home. "We have to have our houses open to combat the mould, and so we have to leave our windows open, but with the debris so huge it is a big concern. We need debris removal as soon as possible."
According to Ms Gardiner, the developer claims that residents are not paying their service charge in the Hudson Estates Subdivisions.
"At this time, I don't think it is a service charge issue, it is a government issue. Hudson Estates is a big subdivision, we have one, two and three. All the sections were flooded," she explained.
"I lost every piece of furniture in my house, and I stayed two days after the hurricane, just crying and praying and throwing (things) out. And normalcy is what we want. Right now, if we can't get the normalcy in your house at least we would like it to see some normalcy in our surroundings," she said.
Ms Gardiner indicated that the debris also poses a fire hazard.
"After battling the hurricane, we had to battle with fire, and we almost lost four houses on my strip where people's cars were burnt. So, if we can get the debris removal, it would be a big relief."
Comments
The_Oracle 5 years, 1 month ago
So the Developer is at fault fr not collecting service charges and defaults on clean up responsibility? Meanwhile the residents sit back and wait for the Government to come and do clean up for them? And the Port Authority is where in this mess? Other private subdivisions have no problem getting cleaned up. The residents can do for themselves and should! Sanitation services has the equipment, own the dump, Pool 3 houses together and get a claw truck to come and take your stuff yourself! Why are we so content to wait for Government to come and do nothing for us?
Sickened 5 years, 1 month ago
Because we lazy bad!!! And too many of us would rather live in filth and blame someone/anyone than to clean up our own F'in yard!!! Nasty!
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 1 month ago
Many times we speak from privilege. I'm guilty of it to at times. We speak to a problem based on our experience. Imagining a solution based on our resources. who's to say that these residents can afford to pay for anything? Imagine if you had to throw everything out your house had no car and everyone in your house was jobless. AND before the storm you weren't making much anyway because the economy was dead. So all the garbage on the lawn, all the cars flooded out and the dump 10 miles away
This looks like a government problem to me
or should we wait for some rat born disease to spread throughout the community?
I suspect if these were attractive white faces we wouldn't jump to the word lazy, we'd be organizing an effort to get a garbage pickup for those poor decent people
Sickened 5 years, 1 month ago
White faced people would more thank likely have saved money and would be living within their means and would be able to afford the few hundred dollars to clean their yard of debris. You think all poor people are poor because of circumstances beyond their control? No. Just like not all white people are rich. But even the old white ladies who worked cashier in a convenience store managed to save some money for retirement.
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 1 month ago
poverty in MOST cases ESPECIALLY in the Bahamas is inherited and difficult to get out of. White privilege exists. My response was to the automatic assumption that because these people could not remove the garbage themselves they were "lazy". Im confident if they were white faces saying the dxact same thing that wouldnt have been the response, it would have been well if they asking for help to remove mounds of garbage they must be in dire straights
I guess we chose door B for the lazy people="rat born diseases"
Ton_Heijnmans 5 years, 1 month ago
Can somebody enlighten me : what means "private sub-division".
Sub-division of where? Of what? The fountain state, of Florida?
Doesn't Karlos'tn & co. at NEMA bear responsibly for D-Day Essential Operations. Including basic post-catastrophe essential public-health matters? Aren't yhose precisely what thousands of volk around the world donated hard-earned savings to abate?
i.e. ... as specifically opposed to funding a Junta with responsibilities that had an array of totally unrelated functions in the Pre-D-Day Ãge, and yet, who one observes shifting gear and continuing to behave in precisely the same fashion as before? In the Post-D-Day wereld... this New Age of Awareness & Enlightenment... an age during which the first seven (7) weeks have seen millions and millions spent on advertising and promoting pumping thousands of tonnes of Kerosene and Boron into our atmospheric space, as the Great And The Goed cowbays head for de Cay Men I-Lets with thúr latest young mistress... as well as the purchase of various outdated, obsolete, carbon-producing, heavy, crude-oil guzzling electrical apparatus ... the likes of which manufacturers have considerable difficulty nowadays selling to anyone outside of the 5th World Peoples (i.e. those billions of volk residing in those many nations that are devoid of all and any Highlands, and ergo, are frozen-in-the-headlights by the (late) realisation that [as an entire kultuur] their volk are pinned to the ground staring up the barrel of a shotgun that is being held firmly in place by the Daughter of Lír Mc Manaman.... whose Name one needn't mention for fear of stirring her from her pacified slumber. Thank the Heavens Above, for that. And every day, 🌅 aNew.
Or, would that be, that blonde lady, the talker, on Her Royal Majesty's Service as the foreman of the Haüs von der Mouldy-Tree appointèd📽🎞 $enā👱♀️Trīx?🎥🎬
In the 🏝sHoly Garden of Paradijs 🎠; shure don't y'Know loike? [🤖🤡🙈👨✈️👻😈☠🤴🙉👮♂️🤓👽👶🙊👧]
Way up above, and beyond... all'ah YOUS =🛐🛐🛐🛐👳♀️🛐🛐🛐🛐😡🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐😵🛐🛐👳♂️🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🤕🛐🛐🛐🛐☻🛐🛐🤪🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐👳♂️🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐👳♀️🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🛐🤠🛐
realfreethinker 5 years, 1 month ago
I am really tired of people just complaining about government being responsible for this. The Port authority is responsible for the cleanup. One would think that Hudson is the only place with debris. have they driven around sunset subdivision, back of town, queens highway?. They can't think they are special. Can they appreciate that the debris is 100s of time more than normal? sanitation had to open a new cell to receive the debris and they have started a third cell in anticipation of needing more space. We have to be patient, these are unusual times.
joeblow 5 years, 1 month ago
It is interesting watching the differences in mentality between Grand Bahama and Abaco!
Sickened 5 years, 1 month ago
You're so right! The first thing my friends in Hope Town did was get the cutlass and chain saw out (with their kids) to clear a path to the main road. Why? In case of emergency for not only them but for their neighbors. Who did they meet further down their road? Their Hatian/Bahamian neighbor who was doing the exact same thing. Together they cleared half a mile to the main road in a day and then had access to supplies and aid if they needed it. Seems like too many people on other islands sit in their home and wait for people to come to them and complain 'cause it takin' too long!
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 1 month ago
This doesn't sound like an effort to clear roadways but a need to truck bulk gargabe away. The woman say water was up to her neck. All transportation is gone and clearing items out a house is EXTREMELY hard and taxing work
proudloudandfnm 5 years, 1 month ago
We are not lazy, no debris is being removed anywhere on GB, it still litters all roads. What are we to do? I don't have a truck with a grappling hook on it to go collect this crap. And we pay the GBPA to do this, they make millions off of us every year. We shouldn't demand what we pay for? Abaco doesn't have a GBPA, so there's your difference...
proudloudandfnm 5 years, 1 month ago
I was wondering the same thing yesterday, the debris is not being removed from anywhere, Queen's Highway id littered from one to the next. Where is the GBPA? It has been two months, they could've bought a fleet of trucks and brought them in by now.
The one entity that seems to not be present in this aftermath is the GBPA. Why? Where are they? On vacation? All the money those crooks make off of us and they have no duty after the worst storm in history? They just get to sit back and watch government do everything?
Freeport needs to boycott the GBPA until they come to their senses and start DOING THEIR JOB. No payments for anything. Starve them into submission.
Economist 5 years, 1 month ago
Absolutely agree.
ThisIsOurs 5 years, 1 month ago
the water was to my neck in my house - that's how high it was. We could not get no rescue and then the sewerage was in the water in your house," she recalled.
"We had (a) baby and everything and - we try to go in the manhole but it break down. So, we had to swim through the water. I fall in the water five times and somebody had to come lift me, and tote me, so I would not drown - that's how high the water was. I never seen nothing like this before in my whole life," Ms Davis said
these stories are incredible...the water rise 5ft...they scramble to the manhole.. the manhole gave way...back in the water fighting for life...incredible. God spare us another test
The_Oracle 5 years, 1 month ago
Meanwhile the dept of Environmental and Health services is spraying for Mosquitoes with Malathion, a toxin, with no public safety announcement to remain indoors with windows closed. What of people with asthma, and other respiratory ailments, small children etc? Same as the Government overall, no press releases or public statements to help people help themselves.
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