EZRA Willis does not consider himself a prophet, despite the biblical underpinnings of his name, but two months ago the resident of McGlashen, in the hills of St Andrew, got what he now realises was divine instruction to move his container shop from the kerb in the farming community where it had stood for years.

On Monday Willis, along with several others from the community, marvelled at the gaping hole into which 80 metres of road had collapsed, taking with it his childhood home which, fortunately, was unoccupied when disaster struck sometime Saturday night. He, like others, had retired to bed on Saturday night with the road intact. At daybreak Sunday the residents awoke to find themselves marooned in the community which also served as an alternative route from Golden Spring in St Andrew to Junction in St Mary.

“I’ve lived here for the past 40-odd years. You see that little house right there? That was where I grew up,” Willis said, pointing to the remnants of his childhood home amongst the rubble of the asphalted road.

“After a while, I moved; that’s my house back there. About two months ago I realised this place moving [because] I saw some holes behind the container. The container is now over there, but immediately as I realised the place was moving I got some men and we draw off the container from there and within two months the piece of land disappear,” a composed Willis told the Jamaica Observer.

“So, is like the Father [God] speak and say: ‘Time to move this container,’ so I moved the container. If not, you would have to pick it up from over there,” he said, pointing to a farmhouse used by coffee farmers at crop time, which had also been disturbed by the breakaway.

Charging that lack of maintenance of the road over the years is the reason for the trauma now being experienced by residents, Willis is adamant that the authorities will need to act fast.

“We want to know how long this a guh tek fi ready because we live here and we have vehicles. We can’t sit down here four to five years years and wait for this to fix. Nobody can’t go school. A this morning we start chop this track,” he told the Observer, gesturing to the crude pathway he and others have been carving since Sunday to enable residents to travel out of the community.

“We need whole heap a help — help like hell we need right now. Tell the Government not to sidding on dis because we don’t have no alternative. We need road!” Willis insisted.

“Is like a God talk. He was signalling. If you were looking you would realise something was going to happen,” he added.

His neighbour, Shawn Hamilton, who was among those working busily to carve footholds into the muddy mountainside for a path, is also of the view that the road cannot be abandoned by the authorities, as was done some years ago when another section collapsed.

“This can never condemn because this was an alternative route from Golden Spring to the Junction. Whenever time Temple Hall main road block, this is what they use all the way through Brandon Hill to St Mary, so this cut off now. There was another route and it cut off from about 2011, so there is no more alternative route,” he told the Observer.

The area, he said, is also of other import aside from being a supplier of coffee.

“This is where you get water from to drink,” he told this reporter, adding, “This is the Ginger River; it serves the Hermitage Dam, and it serves Constant Spring. This water goes there to be treated.”

One resident of the neighbouring Mount Airy community, who declined to give her name, was among several others who journeyed to McGlashen to look at the collapsed road.

“It’s bad, really bad. I’ve never seen anything like this. Just put God in front of you and take a quick look,” she said, nudging this reporter to venture beyond a pink ribbon that residents had used as a boundary marker.

“I heard everybody talking about it but I leave my yard to see it for myself, and I am so scared. I had to stay right there and peep. I work on this road when it a build; I hold flag,” she said, and claimed that recent earthquakes have played a role in the disaster.

“My car leff a road,” one man remarked while clambering down the makeshift hillside track that has become the community’ only link to adjoining areas.

“A di climate change thing weh dem a warn wi bout a gwaan; a bruck it bruck weh. All right weh yuh stand up it can just drop off wid yuh, ennuh miss,” another resident told this reporter as he, too, made his way down the hillside path.

Opposition People’s National Party first-time councillor for the Brandon Hill Division Chrishina Richards, who visited the area alongside the party’s candidate for St Andrew West Rural Joan Gordon Webley to distribute care packages, said the disaster was a second baptism of fire.

“Hurricane Beryl was the first; we are taking some packages to persons over on the other side — the elderly, especially the shut-ins. We are aware that the National Works Agency will be doing their assessment; we await their report. To the naked eye it appears quite devastating but they are the technical people. We look to see if it can be salvaged, and funding is something that I am sure will come into play,” Richards told the Observer.

“The worst part about it is that there was a breakaway from 2011 [in an area] further around, and it was from there that they would access the bypass — so it’s not just affecting McGlashen, it’s affecting Mount Horeb [and] Brandon Hill because all the communities are connected,” she noted.

One resident who pitched in to help others traverse the new terrain said while the situation is a huge negative, there are some positives.

“Disaster is not nice but trust mi, mi love it because it bring people together. Mi like disaster,” he said while offering to help distribute the food packages brought by Richards.

On Sunday, manager of communication and customer services at National Works Agency Stephen Shaw told the Observer that the entity had been alerted about the development.

“We are aware. I don’t know that there is an alternative route but from what I’ve seen in the report it’s a massive earth movement that has taken place,” Shaw said, adding that given the magnitude of the damage, there would be no quick fix for residents.

Meanwhile, up to Monday evening a tropical storm warning remained in effect for Jamaica as a weather system which began affecting the island over the weekend was upgraded.

According to the US-based National Hurricane Center, at 4:00 pm the centre of Tropical Storm Rafael was located 15.5 degrees north and 76.7 degrees west, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. It is expected to bring heavy rainfall and strong gusty winds primarily over southern and north-eastern parishes. Landslides should also be anticipated in vulnerable sections of the island. Tropical Storm Rafael is forecast to become a hurricane by Wednesday near Cuba, according to the weather authorities.