Heavy winds sent the roofs flying off two homes at Britannia, West Coast Berbice, on Thursday morning, terrifying occupants and leaving homeowners counting losses.
Owners of the homes, Earl Munro and Zenadeen Jameer, 80, will have to replace some of the boards and zinc sheets that got damaged in the process. Up to yesterday they were still assessing their losses.
The incident occurred at around 11 am on Thursday.
Munroe said his 14-year-old daughter and a cousin of the same age were alone at home when they heard the loud noise and noticed the galvanized sheets and boards being ripped off.
They became terrified and ran out of the house screaming. It was raining heavily at the time and beds and other articles exposed by the missing zinc sheets got soaked.
Some of the items landed as far as 50 ft away on an empty lot, while others came down on a shed in front of his house. A few of the sheets also landed on an electrical wire near his house, causing an immediate power outage. Up to yesterday when this newspaper visited, power had not been restored.
Munroe was disappointed when he called the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) for assistance in removing the zinc sheets and no one showed up.
“They [GPL workers] told me that I didn’t nail my zinc properly and that’s why they blow off. They didn’t come and I had to eventually use a stick to push the zinc off,” he said. He also had to conduct emergency repairs to the roof to protect his home from the elements.
The wind also passed through Jameer’s house located obliquely opposite. He was in his house with his family when he heard a loud crash.
He investigated only to discover that the entire roof from an extended section at the back had blown off and landed about 60 ft away. That section is currently under construction.
The roof flew over the front of the house and part dropped in the yard while the other part ended up braced on a tree. Other mangled pieces of zinc and boards were also scattered in the yard.
The PVC pipes from his septic tank were destroyed and boards from his landing were also blown off.
Meanwhile, other villages in West Berbice including Bush Lot also experienced power outages after electrical wires burst during the high winds.
