{"id":2305,"date":"2019-04-10T17:46:20","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T17:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2305"},"modified":"2019-04-10T17:46:30","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T17:46:30","slug":"living-on-the-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2305","title":{"rendered":"Living on the edge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sashane Shakes<\/strong><\/em> – Staff Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The abrupt collapse of a three-foot wall and the boulder upon which it was constructed has left two families on edge with apprehension that their homes will eventually lose foundation and give way altogether.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incident took place at a community in Flanker, St.\nJames, on Wednesday March 27 at 2:30 a.m. and involves 2 houses, one of which\nis located on top of a hill, while the other is situated at the bottom.\nSeparating both houses is a three-foot wall which sits on top of a large\nboulder. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accounts from one of the residents, Doreen Willocks, 62, who\nlives in the 2-storey house on top of the hill, are that she awoke to crashing\nnoises and slight shakings. Upon rushing outside, Willocks and the other\noccupants of her house, including her neighbours, witnessed the ordeal. The\nwall capsized and crashed onto the structurally compromised rock. The impact of\nboth structures is believed to have severely weakened the foundation of the\nhomes involved. The landslide-like disaster lasted for all of 16 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now I don\u2019t like to talk about it. Part of the back\nis still breaking away and some more sections have cracked since the incident\ntook place. The column on the steps are now cracked and could break away\neasily, especially if rain falls,\u201d said a tearful Willocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there are cracks to the foundation of Willocks\u2019 house,\nthe columns threaten to give way and the side of her house sits vulnerably at\nthe edge overlooking what now lays the remains of the wall and rock. Her\nneighbours were also left to suffer as the crumbling rock and wall caved in on\ntheir kitchen and car. It is believed that the five (5) occupants of that house\nstill live there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Willocks, she has since relocated to the other house\nin her yard which belongs to her daughter who no longer resides there. Her\n2-storey home was initially occupied by herself, her husband Leroy Willocks,\n74, their daughter-in-law Annakay Lewis and the 4 children she shares with\ntheir son who lives overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lewis and the children now occupy the second floor of\nWillocks\u2019 house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are scared right now because some more break off yesterday.\nIt\u2019s like a little piece keeps breaking off as the days go by. It\u2019s definitely\nnot safe because that tells us that more is gonna happen,\u201d admitted Lewis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is unclear what caused the rock and wall to collapse, but\nWillocks and Lewis believe that it may have been due to tampering of the rock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Charles Sinclair visited the scene of the\nincident along with National Works Agency (NWA) personnel whom he tasked with\ndeveloping a plan and cost to the solution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe matter is technically a government matter because it\ntouches upon the lives of individuals. Damage I saw is dangerous and very\ncostly because of the danger people are exposed to,\u201d said the government\nsenator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sinclair assured that he will endeavour to secure funding to\nrectify the situation. \u201cI will try advocacy to see how they can be rendered\nassistance through public sources to alleviate the danger that exists,\u201d he\nsaid. \u201cI am anticipating a report from the superintendent,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The abrupt collapse of a three-foot wall and the boulder upon which it was constructed has left two families on edge with apprehension that their homes will eventually lose foundation and give way altogether.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[127],"class_list":["post-2305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-flanker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2307,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2305\/revisions\/2307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}