A man and a woman were killed yesterday when they attempted to get across the flooded Sandy Gully using the ford in the vicinity of Queensbury in Kingston.

The woman was not identified, but the male driver was identified by a man, who claimed to be his friend, as Rick McKenzie of Waltham Park Road in Kingston.

The two, who were travelling in a Toyota sports utility vehicle, which was washed away by raging waters from heavy rains associated with Tropical Storm Fay, which began lashing Jamaica Saturday night. The vehicle came to a rest in a section of the gully which runs beside Perkins Boulevard, but by then the two were already dead.

Police say the incident happened about 1:00 am Sunday but the bodies were not removed from the gully until hours later when day broke. The woman’s body was found in the smashed vehicle while McKenzie’s body was taken from another section of the gully, the police said.

The vehicle was removed by members of the Fire Brigade and police officers and taken to the Duhaney Park Police Station.

In the meantime, 71-year-old Civis Fisher was yesterday counting his lucky stars after he was rescued from beneath the rubble of his house, which collapsed on the banks of the Sandy Gully in Cassia Park.

Fisher, who only suffered a damaged left thumb in the incident, recounted his near brush with death.

“I was inside the house when I feel it start vibrate and I start to wonder what was causing it, but it was the earth underneath it moving. All of a sudden it just come crashing down. I was covered by the concrete, although a piece of board took most of the weight off me,” Fisher told the Observer.

The house was made of concrete and had a zinc roof. What was left of the dwelling was seen buried in a deep crater which the flood waters dug.

Fisher was rescued by his neighbours who struggled through the debris despite the heavy showers associated with the tropical storm.

“Them dig and dig till them find me foot so me bawl out ‘unu find one foot so unu can draw me out now,” Fisher said.

Yesterday as he relaxed on his neighbour’s verandah, the elderly man was grateful to be alive. “Me just have to give thanks and praise,” Fisher said.

The raging waters also dug sections of the gully basin and caused a landslide at the section of the retaining wall of the gully near to the Dunrobin Primary School and dug huge craters on a piece of land behind the school.

There was also reports of flooding along a section of Marcus Garvey Drive and Bloomsbury Road where 10 houses were affected.

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management also reported that there was a landslide in Irish Town, while there was flooding in Dunbeholden, near Spanish Town in St Catherine, and in Bannister, also in St Catherine.