AUDRENE Thomas started to cry last Thursday as the flood waters rose waist-high inside the humble dwelling she shared with relatives on the outskirts of the Golden Grove Market in St Thomas.

The rain was associated with a low-level trough.

“I had never seen it like this before,” Thomas told the Sunday Observer a day later, between cleaning and drying rain-soaked items of furniture and appliances. Her relatives were also hard at work, so Thomas took a break for the interview.

She said the house flooded after about 40 minutes of heavy rainfall. “I was crying because the water was waist high,” she recalled, adding that several more inches of rain had fallen on previous occasions but “we never see this kind of flooding yet”.

On Friday scores of people in Thomas’ parish were busy removing signs of flooding from their homes and businesses.

Golden Grove is not usually prone to flooding, although it is nestled near the easterly most point of the island – Morant Point. However, on Thursday, as the skies above the parish opened up, residents were surprised to see heavy, waist-high water flowing through the community.

The rushing waters carried away six wooden stalls – which had been outside the market – and deposited them into a nearby cane field in Duckensfield. Vendors told the Sunday Observer that they also lost food, clothes and other goods from stalls inside the market. On Friday they were either busy trying to salvage their damaged goods or washing away mud and silt.

Maureen Dale, who operates a small shop at the market, was thankful that the damage was “not worse”, although she had lost “flour” and other goods.

“It could be worse. I am a child of God so I have to be grateful that I did not lose more,” Dale said.

The Golden Grove Police station, where 30 students and a teacher from the Happy Grove High School had sought refuge, was also flooded after water gushed through the now defunct, Eastern Banana Estate.

“It was like Lake Michigan; the whole place was flooded,” said Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Riley.

A huge chunk of the roadway leading to the Duckensfield Sugar factory was torn away, while several barrack-style houses were flooded.

Not even the dead were spared, as the community cemetery was also flooded.

Elsewhere in the parish the damage caused by the raging waters was evident. Several landslides and mud slippage were evident on the road leading to the Bowden Wharf and the Bowden Great House.

The main road leading to Hayfield was blocked in several places by landslides and the residents of the community were still marooned on Friday. The flood waters also removed a chunk of newly laid road surface on the Potosi Main Road, while pools of water were seen on several other main roads in the parish.

On the Golden Grove main road – which is flanked by swamps on both sides – some residents caught dozens of crabs, while keeping a watch out for crocodiles.

“Crocodile over there because I see one last night,” one man, who had a crocus bag half-filled with live crabs, told the Sunday Observer.