NORMAN Manley, the nephew of former prime minister Michael Manley, is recuperating from injuries he sustained last week after spending nearly two hours fighting for his life as he was being washed away by flood waters in the Sandy Gully in St Andrew.

Manely was still shaken up by the incident yesterday, but his wife, Jennifer, told the Observer that her husband was recovering ‘nicely’ from the injuries he received when the angry flood waters dragged him from Charlton Ford in the Sandy Gully in St Andrew to a section of Riverton City where he was eventually rescued.

“He said, ‘I am a lucky man. I am supposed to be dead. I was going through the Charlton Gully and it didn’t seem to have much water and out of nowhere came a wall of water,’ which he said it just shook the car and carried him about 50 yards from the road,” she said. “He said he remembers trying to steer the car into the bank when all of this was happening, but he wasn’t able to.”

“Norman is healing nicely. His hands were badly bruised and they have no skin on them,” she said. “He will probably never try to cross a ford when it’s raining again.”

Manley recalled that she received a frightening phone call from her husband last Thursday at about 2:30 pm when he told her he was trapped in his car.

At that point, Manley said she thought her husband, who is a lawyer in Mandeville, was not in any danger and that he was calling her from somewhere safe so she asked him if he wanted her to pick him up.

“He asked me to call the police and the fire men and get help for him, and told me that he had already called the police,” she said. “I asked him where he was so I could go and collect him. He told me no, he was still in the car, and asked if I couldn’t hear the water. I could and it was then that I realised that he was in big trouble,” she said, adding that she immediately called someone in Grant’s Pen who she thought would be able to assist her husband.

Additionally, Manley said she called Superintendent Rosie McDonald-Barker, a family friend who she thought would be able to offer further assistance. She also called the fire brigade.

“I still didn’t get it that he was still in the car,” she said, adding that about 30 minutes had now passed and by this time the angry waters began to rise so it was no longer safe for her husband to stay in the vehicle.

“I called back Norman and he said to me ‘you hear the water’ and I said yes and he said the water is rising,” she said. “So I said where are you and he said I am in the car and it is very dark and I can’t see anything and I said to him ‘Norman you need to get out of the car right now’, because he said the water was right at his waist.”

Manley said she got off the phone with her husband and tried to call Supt McDonald-Barker for an update. The superintendent called the police, but said she was unable to contact Manley’s husband.

“I tried calling him back to let him know that I’d spoken to the police and our contact in Grant’s Pen and that a policeman from the Grant’s Pen Police Station had already left to come to him. There was no response and the phone went straight to voice mail,” she said. “This, for me, was an ominous sign. I called my contact in Grant’s Pen and he said ‘boy Miss Jen, I don’t have any good news for you’. He said that the policeman had been to the gully side and saw my husband’s car being carried away, and immediately behind it, my husband.”

After hearing that Manley was immediately overcome with fear.

“I was numb with shock, but started calling his family right away to let them know the situation. At that point, I started getting ready to accept the fact that he may not make it,” she said.

Nearly an hour had passed and still no word from her husband until 4:05 pm, Superintendent McDonald Barker called Manley to tell her that they found her husband in Riverton City, clinging to a tree trunk.

“She told me that she didn’t have any details on his condition, but that he was alive and that the residents were trying to get him out of the water, and the police were there as well,” she said. “She called me back to say that two of the residents went into the water and pulled him to safety, and that I should meet them at the hospital immediately.”

Manley said she is overly grateful to the persons who risked their own lives to save her husband. She said “because of them, I have my husband, and our children have their father”.

Manley said her husband was badly bruised and was suffering from shock. She said he told her that he survived because he never fought the water, but chose instead to ride the tide. He also told her that he kept his head above water and eventually, found a tree trunk which he held onto for dear life.

“He said also that when he saw debris like a fridge and an old car heading for him, he dove under the water until it passed,” she said, adding that her husband is a good swimmer.

“We would like the opportunity to say thank you to all the persons who assisted; the policemen who attempted to get him out, Supt McDonald-Barker; the two children that raised the alarm, Albert from Grant’s Pen who called me with information,” she said. “The nurses and doctors at Andrew’s Memorial Hospital Emergency Room who actually deliver service in a crisis. Many thanks to all.