Terrifying ordeal as man escapes from flooded apartment through window
A man who escaped his flooded basement apartment through a tiny window as water rose to his neck says it was the “most terrifying” experience of his life.
Paddy Furlong thought he was going to die after a loud explosion woke him at about 4.30am on Friday and he opened his bedroom door to find water gushing in.
His home on Melville Road, Devonshire, was one of many affected by the torrential rains on Friday, which also caused a wall to collapse on Palmetto Road and power lines to come down.
Mr Furlong gave this newspaper a tour of his empty apartment where almost everything was destroyed by the torrent of water and mud.
The 30-year-old, from County Wexford, Ireland, said: “I was in my bed and I heard a loud explosion. I went to go to the bedroom door. It was pitch black darkness. I took the handle of the bedroom door and it just exploded back at me.
“The [first] explosion was the window exploding in with water. It was pitch black and water just gushed in.
“I hadn’t a clue what was going on. There was ten or 15 seconds of just standing here. There was water above my knees.”
Mr Furlong waded through the water to the front door but it had been locked from the outside by his wife Louise, 29, a nurse who was working a night shift at the Mid-Atlantic Wellness Institute — and Mr Furlong’s keys were lost somewhere in the flooding water.
By this time the water had risen to his waist — and was showing no signs of stopping. Mr Furlong climbed onto a chest of drawers to reach a small high window — but the chest was eventually forced off the ground by the water.
The 6ft 1in accountant climbed onto another piece of furniture and managed to prise the insect screen from the window and force the glass out before climbing out of the apartment. He said the whole incident probably lasted less than three minutes, but felt a lot longer.
“The water never went above my head level but I didn’t know when that water was going to stop,” said Mr Furlong. “The water was rising so fast.”
His immediate thought on getting out was that his next door neighbour Christopher Madeiros was still inside his apartment. He began shouting for his landlord, Christopher’s father Ray, who quickly rushed out of the main house and told him Chris wasn’t home.
Mr Furlong said if he had been, it’s unlikely he would have made it out of his apartment alive.
“If Chris had been in his bedroom, he had no way out,” said Mr Furlong, showing how the water reached a height of at least 5ft 6in and how Christopher’s window also exploded with its force.
He added that it was lucky his 5ft 2in wife was on night shift, as the water in their apartment rose inches above that. Along with Mr Madeiros Jr, the couple have lost most of their possessions, apart from the clothes they were standing up in that morning.
But Mr Furlong said there were a couple of welcome finds among the mud caking their apartment, including his wife’s wedding and engagement rings and their pet goldfish Gizmo, who managed to stay alive as its bowl floated on its side across the flat.
“Other than that, it’s all devastation,” said Mr Furlong. “It was the most terrifying thing that ever happened to me in my life. To go from sleeping to being up to your neck in freezing water in the pitch black ... it was like something from a reality show. There were a few seconds there when I thought ‘I’m done’.”
His wife arrived home soon after Mr Furlong’s dramatic escape after receiving a call from landlady Nancy Madeiros about the torrential rain — and hearing her husband calling for help in the background.
Her eyes filled with tears yesterday as she recalled coming home to find him outside the house in his sodden pyjamas. “I don’t even know how to put into words [how I felt],” she said.
The couple, who have moved temporarily into another apartment owned by Mr and Mrs Madeiros, said they were extremely grateful for all the help they received from their Bermudian and expat friends after the flood.
Mr and Mrs Madeiros echoed that sentiment and said they would now start the task of cleaning up the thousands of dollars worth of damage in both apartments.
Homeowner Ray Madeiros asked Government to install storm drains at his property almost six years ago — but never heard anything back.
Now, after two of his apartments flooded during Friday’s torrential rainstorm and a tenant escaped from water up to his neck (see main story), Public Works Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin has promised to get the work done.
But she told The Royal Gazette the task would be added to a list of jobs needing doing after the storm, with those families left homeless at the top of the priority list.
Mr Madeiros, 69, showed this newspaper a letter he sent to former Works Minister Derrick Burgess in May 2008, asking for a storm drain at his home on Melville Road, Devonshire.
He wrote: “During heavy rain, water accumulates at the bottom of said road then overflows onto our property.”
In the early hours of Friday morning overflowing water forced its way into two basement flats at the house — causing two windows to explode and nearly trapping tenant Paddy Furlong inside one of the apartments.
Mr Madeiros’s son Christopher, 40, lives in the other flat but was thankfully not at home.
Mr Madeiros Sr said yesterday he never even got an acknowledgment for his letter to Government, though he hand-delivered it.
“It didn’t need to happen,” he said of Friday’s flood. “There is a significant amount of damage — thousands of dollars worth of damage.
“My son lost everything he had. He has lost everything that he owned personally down there.
“If they’d have done what they needed to do, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. It’s too bad.
“I built both of those apartments. All that work in there that I put in — it’s very disappointing.”
He told how Premier Craig Cannonier and Public Safety Minister Michael Dunkley visited him and his wife Nancy on Friday to witness the devastation caused, with Ms Gordon-Pamplin coming the following day.
Two engineers from the Ministry of Public Works visited the property yesterday afternoon to discuss the installation of a storm drain.
Mr Madeiros said: “I had a productive meeting with them. They are going to try to do something [but] it’s a little bit late after the horse has bolted from the barn.”
Ms Gordon-Pamplin said: “I received a call on Saturday morning at 8am from Mrs Madeiros and I visited their home by 8.30am on the same morning.
“I assessed the situation and immediately called our Chief Engineer to report what I had seen of the flooding. I asked him to have a look at the problem as soon as possible.
“In addition, Mr Madeiros showed me a copy of a letter that he had written to the Works Minister in 2008, asking that a storm drain be installed at the foot of Melville Crescent in front of their premises.
“He also took me on a drive through the area, pointing out where the problem emanated concerning the inordinate water flow that caused the damage.
“I advised that I could not respond concerning their failure to get a response to their 2008 letter, but that the department would evaluate their situation at the earliest possible time.
“On Monday, I called Mr Madeiros to let him know that we were extremely inundated with issues from the rain and that our engineer would be on site as soon as possible.
“By follow-up, the Chief Engineer e-mailed me on Monday afternoon to say that he would have someone look at it.”
She said the engineering department had been “flat out” since Friday’s floods and had to help homeless residents first.
“Mr Madeiros confirmed that the displaced tenants in both apartments have been accommodated: one in another apartment that he had available on his property and the other had appropriate alternative accommodations.
“The situation will be addressed as soon as is humanly possible, but we must first ensure that attention to damage done to properties that left people homeless was our priority.
“The Melville Estate issue is on the list and will be seen to. We are more than attentive to the needs of all constituents, but we have to triage problems and deal with them in terms of priority. I am pleased to note that the engineers have been on site today.”
