In the newspaper this week, an article something like this would have appeared: This morning at approximately 10 am in Jamestown a massive rockfall occurred – certainly the biggest rockfall in 20 or 30 years. A large portion of rock was dislodged from the top of the Ladder Hill mountain, falling down with a frightening rumble into the Jamestown valley. Several properties were badly damaged, from the Baptist Manse up past Alan Richard’s workshop. The Governor, in his statement, said that “we are grateful to God for the preservation of life”. Indeed, not one person was killed or even injured. This has been declared a major disaster.
Our personal account would sound more like this: On Thursday morning the Williamsons had just arrived at our house to spend their last morning on the island with us. Kyle and Ema went across the road to the Haven to bid farewell to some of the people they had interviewed. The boys were all chatting in the lounge or diningroom (no water fights today) and had had their juice and freshly-baked choc-chip cookies. Genevieve and I had just settled in the diningroom with our tea and biscuits, when we heard a terrifying cacophony of rumbles, crashes, glass breaking – it took a few seconds to register that there had been a rockfall and that our house had been hit, but the adrenalin rush sparked an immediate reaction of shouting to get out of the house. The four boys, Genevieve and I ran out, but on the road there was more pandemonium as small rocks were bouncing on the road and all around us. I heard Nick from the upstairs windows shouting “RUN!”; we raced down the road to safety in time to watch clouds of dust billowing out of the Baptist Chapel and off the mountain where the rocks had left a trail. Everything happened so quickly, but once the adrenalin wore off we were severely shaken and tired. Kyle and Ema had reappeared from the Haven when they heard the rumble, and so all were accounted for except Nick, who took some time to come out onto the road. He had been stuck upstairs as he had been working in his office when he heard the clamour, and couldn’t get downstairs – he could hear rocks thudding against the outside wall of the house. The best he could do was run to the road side of the house and wait it out, keeping a quick eye on the ceiling in case he had to dodge anything. When it subsided he made his way down and out as well, looking surprisingly calm and happy. At the time we didn’t really realize the enormity of what just happened, but when we went back and saw the devastation in our house, the chapel, and schoolroom, we were just humbled and thankful that God has spared us all – particularly the boys, because if they had been playing outside at the time, it’s not likely that they would have survived. Nick was probably in the greatest actual danger as his office is on the mountain side – rocks came down all around, but his office was untouched. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! There were surely angels watching over us that day; we came out with not one scratch or bruise.
The damage to our house is small compared to the chapel and schoolroom, but I’ll start there. The bathroom has a hole in the wall approximately 1m high and wide. The bath has been repositioned and so has the handbasin, but the toilet stood its ground and remarkably so did the mirror on the wall and the glass shelf in the corner. There is a disturbingly wide crack in the sea-facing wall, so the structural damage will need to be assessed.
Nick’s office, the boy’s room, our bedroom and the guest room are unscathed, but in my craft room there is a rock on the bed which came through the roof, shattering one of the ceiling boards.
Downstairs, the diningroom and lounge are fine, albeit dusty. In the kitchen a couple of windows broke. Behind the stove, the entire wall has buckled inwards – not collapsed, but cracked in several places and leaning inwards. The bamboo over Nick’s BBQ area has been broken like toothpicks, and an outside wall crumpled. There is a hole in the wall which separates us from the empty house next door, and rocks and debris all over the back yard, including an enormous boulder on what was left on the lawn and big gashes through the grass where it bounced. The boys’ tree house area is only half standing, with more splintered wood scattered about. The workshop was badly hit too, with a big corner broken off.
Moving on to the church, it seems that rocks came all the way over the chapel and penetrated the roof toward the road side – you can imagine with what force and speed they were moving. Many of the wooden railings in the gallery have been splintered, and the wooden railings at the stage have broken. The organ seems to be unscathed, but the OHP is smashed – a big blow to our children’s ministry. The big sounding board at the front of the church is hanging off the wall at a sad angle, and a few of the pews seem also to be broken. The extent of the damage is actually quite unbelievable.
Then, the schoolroom itself is pretty bad. Half of the roof has been ripped off – that roof was put on about two years ago, you may recall. I haven’t seen in there, but there are apparently a lot of rocks lying about there. Next to the schoolroom, the yard is lying full of rocks. From a view point on the opposite mountain the damage is evident – our carport has been squashed and the rented garage next to it looks like it exploded. The property next door to that, Alan Richard’s property, was also badly damaged but I don’t know details.
Our house is uninhabitable at present and will remain so until the bathroom at least has been repaired and the structural damage assessed by engineers – it may either be worse than we think, or not too bad at all. In the meantime we have moved into the home of a couple in our church who are away in the UK on holiday. They offered us their house before they left, in the event of a rockfall – definitely not anticipating something of this magnitude! Rock guards were on the hillside later in the afternoon, probing the surrounding area and dislodging anything else that needed to come down. We actually happened to be watching from the opposite mountain as another big boulder bounced down; we discovered later that it landed in our back yard, smashing the steps leading from our yard to the church. We saw where part of the Ladder Hill road has been damaged, and the car that was crushed in the rockfall – bonnet and boot destroyed, but miraculously the passengers could open their doors and get out of the car.
Please pray with us that God would be glorified through this all, and that His church would come through it with strength. We will need to find alternate arrangements for the Jamestown services for the next few months until the chapel has been repaired. We don’t yet know His purposes in allowing this to happen, but we know that He is sovereign; inasmuch as not one sparrow falls to the ground without His knowledge, also not one rock tumbles down a mountain that He has not already known about. Caleb and Aaron are handling the situation extremely well. Of course we will keep an eye on them, because I understand that a trauma like this can manifest itself over the course of time, but for now they are at peace. I suspect they are sadder at losing their new friends who left on the ship today: saying goodbye to Kyle, Genevieve, Ema, Ben and Sam added to the general trauma of the day. Genevieve was wonderfully calm throughout the whole ordeal this morning and I was so grateful to have her support. What a way for them to spend their last morning!
We invited ourselves to Harry and Jenny for supper, also feeling like we could use Christian company – the arrangements were a bit sketchy though and Jenny didn’t really know we were coming to eat, but managed to rustle up some superb burgers with lettuce and fried egg. They phoned their local shop up the road, who obligingly opened their store for Harry to buy toothbrushes, toothpaste, cereal and milk for us.
Our personal account would sound more like this: On Thursday morning the Williamsons had just arrived at our house to spend their last morning on the island with us. Kyle and Ema went across the road to the Haven to bid farewell to some of the people they had interviewed. The boys were all chatting in the lounge or diningroom (no water fights today) and had had their juice and freshly-baked choc-chip cookies. Genevieve and I had just settled in the diningroom with our tea and biscuits, when we heard a terrifying cacophony of rumbles, crashes, glass breaking – it took a few seconds to register that there had been a rockfall and that our house had been hit, but the adrenalin rush sparked an immediate reaction of shouting to get out of the house. The four boys, Genevieve and I ran out, but on the road there was more pandemonium as small rocks were bouncing on the road and all around us. I heard Nick from the upstairs windows shouting “RUN!”; we raced down the road to safety in time to watch clouds of dust billowing out of the Baptist Chapel and off the mountain where the rocks had left a trail. Everything happened so quickly, but once the adrenalin wore off we were severely shaken and tired. Kyle and Ema had reappeared from the Haven when they heard the rumble, and so all were accounted for except Nick, who took some time to come out onto the road. He had been stuck upstairs as he had been working in his office when he heard the clamour, and couldn’t get downstairs – he could hear rocks thudding against the outside wall of the house. The best he could do was run to the road side of the house and wait it out, keeping a quick eye on the ceiling in case he had to dodge anything. When it subsided he made his way down and out as well, looking surprisingly calm and happy. At the time we didn’t really realize the enormity of what just happened, but when we went back and saw the devastation in our house, the chapel, and schoolroom, we were just humbled and thankful that God has spared us all – particularly the boys, because if they had been playing outside at the time, it’s not likely that they would have survived. Nick was probably in the greatest actual danger as his office is on the mountain side – rocks came down all around, but his office was untouched. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! There were surely angels watching over us that day; we came out with not one scratch or bruise.The damage to our house is small compared to the chapel and schoolroom, but I’ll start there. The bathroom has a hole in the wall approximately 1m high and wide. The bath has been repositioned and so has the handbasin, but the toilet stood its ground and remarkably so did the mirror on the wall and the glass shelf in the corner. There is a disturbingly wide crack in the sea-facing wall, so the structural damage will need to be assessed.
Nick’s office, the boy’s room, our bedroom and the guest room are unscathed, but in my craft room there is a rock on the bed which came through the roof, shattering one of the ceiling boards.Downstairs, the diningroom and lounge are fine, albeit dusty. In the kitchen a couple of windows broke. Behind the stove, the entire wall has buckled inwards – not collapsed, but cracked in several places and leaning inwards. The bamboo over Nick’s BBQ area has been broken like toothpicks, and an outside wall crumpled. There is a hole in the wall which separates us from the empty house next door, and rocks and debris all over the back yard, including an enormous boulder on what was left on the lawn and big gashes through the grass where it bounced. The boys’ tree house area is only half standing, with more splintered wood scattered about. The workshop was badly hit too, with a big corner broken off. Moving on to the church, it seems that rocks came all the way over the chapel and penetrated the roof toward the road side – you can imagine with what force and speed they were moving. Many of the wooden railings in the gallery have been splintered, and the wooden railings at the stage have broken. The organ seems to be unscathed, but the OHP is smashed – a big blow to our children’s ministry. The big sounding board at the front of the church is hanging off the wall at a sad angle, and a few of the pews seem also to be broken. The extent of the damage is actually quite unbelievable.Then, the schoolroom itself is pretty bad. Half of the roof has been ripped off – that roof was put on about two years ago, you may recall. I haven’t seen in there, but there are apparently a lot of rocks lying about there. Next to the schoolroom, the yard is lying full of rocks. From a view point on the opposite mountain the damage is evident – our carport has been squashed and the rented garage next to it looks like it exploded. The property next door to that, Alan Richard’s property, was also badly damaged but I don’t know details.Our house is uninhabitable at present and will remain so until the bathroom at least has been repaired and the structural damage assessed by engineers – it may either be worse than we think, or not too bad at all. In the meantime we have moved into the home of a couple in our church who are away in the UK on holiday. They offered us their house before they left, in the event of a rockfall – definitely not anticipating something of this magnitude! Rock guards were on the hillside later in the afternoon, probing the surrounding area and dislodging anything else that needed to come down. We actually happened to be watching from the opposite mountain as another big boulder bounced down; we discovered later that it landed in our back yard, smashing the steps leading from our yard to the church. We saw where part of the Ladder Hill road has been damaged, and the car that was crushed in the rockfall – bonnet and boot destroyed, but miraculously the passengers could open their doors and get out of the car.Please pray with us that God would be glorified through this all, and that His church would come through it with strength. We will need to find alternate arrangements for the Jamestown services for the next few months until the chapel has been repaired. We don’t yet know His purposes in allowing this to happen, but we know that He is sovereign; inasmuch as not one sparrow falls to the ground without His knowledge, also not one rock tumbles down a mountain that He has not already known about. Caleb and Aaron are handling the situation extremely well. Of course we will keep an eye on them, because I understand that a trauma like this can manifest itself over the course of time, but for now they are at peace. I suspect they are sadder at losing their new friends who left on the ship today: saying goodbye to Kyle, Genevieve, Ema, Ben and Sam added to the general trauma of the day. Genevieve was wonderfully calm throughout the whole ordeal this morning and I was so grateful to have her support. What a way for them to spend their last morning!
We invited ourselves to Harry and Jenny for supper, also feeling like we could use Christian company – the arrangements were a bit sketchy though and Jenny didn’t really know we were coming to eat, but managed to rustle up some superb burgers with lettuce and fried egg. They phoned their local shop up the road, who obligingly opened their store for Harry to buy toothbrushes, toothpaste, cereal and milk for us.
1 comment:
Oh my word! I can't even imagine how frightening this would have been, after-the-fact.
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