Claxton Bay family recalls terror as house collapses – GOD HELP US

TERROR gripped a Claxton Bay family as the walls of their home began to buckle, the ground to shake and the roof to cave in on them Wednesday morning. Luckily, every member of the Garcia family managed to run out of their Belleview Village house before it collapsed.

However, while thankful that his life and those of his family members were spared, Giles Garcia, 62, said the future looks grim as he and his family have nowhere to live.

Recalling his horror, Garcia said his house started to move and the walls crack and crumble around 3 am. The family alerted neighbours who sprang into action to help.

Garcia said he first realised something was terribly wrong when he heard tiles on the walls of his kitchen crashing to the floor. He got up from sleep and went to use the bathroom but realised the door was stuck – jammed to the floor as he wall started to move downwards.

He immediately woke up his wife Anastasia Morris-Garcia, a policewoman, and her two adult children aged 30 and 31, telling them something. As family members ran out of the house, Garcia said he heard someone cry out, "God help us all."

“Being trained in the energy industry for so many years and following safety protocols, I said, 'Let's move.' They started moving the cars out of the yard,” Garcia recalled. “The cracks in the driveway were widening before our eyes. We used bricks to fill them in order to keep space for the cars to pass.

"By 3.45 am, the house started to sink and slide, sink and slide downhill." His concrete house had three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Two nearby houses are on the brink of collapse.”

Garcia, a former supervisor at Petrotrin, worked at the company for almost 45 years until 2018, when the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery was closed. Residents believe ongoing quarrying nearby is responsible for the landslip and collapse of Garcia's house.

Garcia told Newsday that the family saw slight erosion around the house last week Thursday and were monitoring it. By Sunday, the cracks began to widen rapidly. The family spoke to a builder about putting up a retaining wall.

Garcia said he and other residents went to the quarry site and asked workers to stop, but they refused. Garcia said he asked the quarry operators who visit his house to see the widening cracks.

Several residents were trying to help Garcia salvage household items on Wednesday. Residents said quarrying had stopped for about five years but resumed more than a year ago and is continuing.

Garcia's neighbour Nardera Ramsaran-Williams, 45, who lives with her husband Chester Williams and two children, 15, and 20, says she is now fearful that her home can come crashing down since the quarrying has not stopped.

Fearing the worse, especially since the land to the back of her house is already starting to move so much so that her water tanks and their stands have already collapsed, Ramsaran-Williams has began to remove household items from the structure.

“When I opened my back door and see the land caved in and the tanks fall down, I started to pack things one time. My sister who is from Cedros came to help move out things from the house," she said.

"We need a place to go. We have nowhere to go and the land is moving. The quarrying is causing this problem. I am afraid to stay in my own house,” she said. Her household belongings are now in the yard covered in tarpaulin to protect it from the elements.

Another resident, Marva Fitz, 67, says she too fears his house could come crashing down. She lives with her daughter and son-in-law.

She recalled being awakened at 3 am on Wednesday by a loud noise.

“My niece Anastasia (Garcia's wife) called out to me to take off the lights because a line was on fire. When I came outside, the neighbours were already gathered," Fitz said. "Her house was already going down."

Fitz said the walls of her house are covered in cracks and parts of the ceiling have fallen. "I born and grow up here. When I saw what was happening, I bawl out, 'God help us.' We are trying our best to save items,” Fitz said.

Councillor Gangaram Gopaul of the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation met with the affected residents and said he was unaware that mining was taking place so close to private land. He too confirmed that the quarrying had ceased for about five years.

A statement from the corporation said the affected area is near the Estate Management and Business Development Company Ltd’s (EMBD) sand quarry. Field officers from the disaster management unit and EMBD officials were “in the area” on Wednesday, the release added.

A subsequent statement from the EMBD said the company had been notified about the landslip which had “adversely affected” a few houses outside the boundary of its Coco Road quarry. The statement said the company is investigating the incident. The statement said the quarry is one of the few licensed quarries that operates with full regulatory approvals.

At a press conference, MP David Lee called on the Agriculture, Land and Fisheries Minister Clarence Rambharat to put a stop to the quarry. He also called for an investigation into the incident and compensation for the affected residents.