Switching gears now, Hurricane Lisa lashed Belize with a vengeance last November, destroying homes and property, particularly in the Belize District. In the weeks following, government departments, NGO's, and church leaders took to the streets to give out groceries and building materials. Some residents were lucky enough to even have their homes repaired for them.
But of course, there were some that fell through the cracks, like the two story house that once sat on Pickstock Street. The hurricane's winds caused the house to start leaning, but the occupant, Prudence Vernon, received no help to fix it. She'd been living at her mother's house in the meantime, but any hopes of moving back home were snuffed out after the house finally collapsed today, almost five months after the hurricane.
Courtney Menzies visited the area and has this story.
This Colonial-style house on Pickstock Street has been standing here for decades, and for 16 of those years, 37-year-old Prudence Vernon had been living there. But Vernon and her two sons had to evacuate before the hurricane last November, and since then they hadn't returned.
And today, that old, three story house finally fell, taking with it every appliance and article of clothing that Vernon owned.
And though she didn't see when the house collapsed, her neighbors heard the bang and some even fell the ground shake. One woman who lives nearby said she was crossing the street when she realized something was wrong.
Vernice Jex, Neighbor
"I was crossing the street to go and get something for breakfast this morning when I heard a terrible groaning and then like an explosion, it fell, and then dust was in the air when I looked across, the house was on the ground. But last night when I was passing here with my pup, I noticed the house was leaning even more than it was before, so I knew something was going to happen, I didn't expect it to happen today."
"After the hurricane happened, the people that live here, the step and the verandah separate itself from, see, because it moved, the step and the verandah separated itself from the house itself and it caused the people to not be able to enter their premises so I don't know how they took out whatever they took out but from that day it had been in a very bad condition."
Courtney Menzies:
"And you know the women, Ms Prudence?"
Vernice Jex, Neighbor
"Yes, of course, she has a little business that she sells rice and beans, chips and dips, and other stuff right at the corner of this lane, right in front of the store over there."
But since the hurricane, Vernon has been unable to sell food, and when we spoke to her this afternoon, all she could do was wait to see if someone from the Belize City Council would come to clear the area. And another neighbor was doing the same since she was blocked from reaching her home, and her elderly uncle was trapped inside the alley.
Voice of: Farrah Smith, Neighbor
"More and more everyday, it took a toll to started moving, increasing like leaning and leaning towards the street so everyday I used to look at it and say one day I just hope this doesn't fall when my baby is passing through the alley because it really looks bad. So we were just monitoring it and I guess the little March breeze that was blowing, because it's heavy breeze that comes in the night, I guess it was just due time until this house fell and the people, I don't think they got out anything out of the house because of the situation, how bad the house had deteriorating, they couldn't really get anything, they were afraid to go in there and move their stuff because they were afraid it would eventually collapse on them."
"For right now, the entire back of the house is in our alleyway so we can't really get in there and then I have an uncle who is back there by himself who is ageable so he's by himself at this time so we need City Council or somebody to come and try to do something about it to try and move the house out of the alleyway at this time so we could have access to our yard."
And for Vernon, she told us off-camera that she would have to figure out her next move, and whether or not anything inside her house survived the fall.
City Council workers did go to the area, but a video sent to us showed that the backhoe they were using began malfunctioning.
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