A Portland woman died yesterday morning in a mudslide triggered by heavy rains which have been lashing sections of the island since Wednesday.

Yesterday, dozens of anxious neighbours, several armed with hoes, pick axes and garden forks, converged at the woman’s home at 4 Red Hassel Road, as they searched desperately to recover her body from the thick mud.

However, when the body was found after more than 10 hours of digging and searching, Pauline “Julie” Shalland, 53, was dead. She was found in the house in a green T-shirt, curlers in her hair, with her back against a column in her bedroom, covered with a bedspread and a concrete column across her face.

It was a gruesome sight for many, as despite the frantic search, in which assistance was given by the National Works Agency, Portland Parish Council, Portland Parish Disaster Committee and Alcar Construction, family, friends and neighbours were clinging to the hope that Shalland would have come out alive.

“It is really sad to see,” said one of Shalland’s son, who gave his name only as Danzel. “I was not here and them tell me that landslide come down and me mother trap in there,” he said, a look of grief on his face.

Shalland’s spouse, Cecil “Butty” Cover, 51, who was with her on the bed, said he tried to save her, but was overcome by the thick mud and water.

“I lie down with her in the house and I hear movement outside ‘wooooo.’, and so I got up and went outside, then something hit me and pinned my foot against the wall, then me just start slide down to the bottom of the road,” said Cover, as tears flowed down his cheeks while one of his daughters combed his hair as he lay on his bed at the Port Antonio Hospital. “I couldn’t save her, me did a try to save her,” said Cover.

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller yesterday expressed her condolence to Shalland’s family. “I offer my condolence and encouragement to the family at this time of bereavement,” the prime minister said in a statement.

In the meantime, the prime minister yesterday deployed a high-level government team to assess the damage caused by heavy rains that have drenched sections of the island since Wednesday.

“I have instructed a team led by the Hon Dean Peart, minister of local government and the environment, to tour the parishes that have been severely affected by the rains to get a first-hand look at the damage and report back to me,” Simpson Miller said. “The team includes Minister of State Harry Douglas and officials from the Ministry of Land and the Environment, Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), National Works Agency and the Ministry of Health,” she said.

Meantime, preliminary reports from the ODPEM indicated that St Mary and Portland were the two worst affected parishes, followed by St Ann and Trelawny. Flooding was also reported in Port Maria, the Rio Grande and Swift River Valley. The community of Breastworks in Portland experienced incidents of flooding, however, there was no need for evacuation. There were also reports of land slippage and flooding in the Summer Stone Road area in the parish.

The National Water Commission (NWC) also reported that flooding, heavy siltation and high turbidity at a number of water treatment facilities in the northern parishes of the island resulted in temporary water supply disruptions or reduced water pressure to a number of communities.

In the meantime, low-lying and flood-prone areas in the parishes of St Thomas, Portland, St Mary, and St Ann remained under a flash flood warning last night.

The National Meteorological Service said a stationary front across Jamaica continued to produce scattered showers and thunderstorms over sections of most parishes.

The system, the Met Service said, was expected to drift towards the west of the island last night, but the island was expected to continue experiencing periods of scattered showers and thunderstorms today.

“A gradual return to near normal conditions is expected on Sunday as the system dissipates west of Jamaica,” the Met Service said.

– Additional reporting by Taneisha Lewis