Flat Bridge diver concerned as tropical storm nears

As Jamaica remains under a tropical storm watch, fear grips the small community beside the Rio Cobre in St Catherine.

The infamous Flat Bridge, suspended over the surging current, has long been a place of tragedy, and with days of rain swelling the river again, residents say it feels like they are living on the edge of disaster. For Zina Slew, a diver who lives just metres away from the bridge, every crack of thunder sounds like a warning. She has pulled both survivors and bodies from the Rio Cobre, but each new storm season tightens the knot in her stomach.

"We have gone in the water when it's murky, but we don't like to do it because it's dirty and you can't see anything," she told THE STAR. "The first time I went in the water to save someone, it was just like this."

When the Bog Walk Gorge floods, authorities close the gates at both ends, cutting residents off from the rest of St Catherine.

"When they close the gorge, that's our issue," Slew said. "I wish and hope they would put someone there, even a security guard, a police officer, or an emergency team in the community. We must can go out and come in."

"On a couple of occasions, the person who had the keys is our councillor. So it's not something monitored, it's just locked and left. The last hurricane season, we had a flood and a boulder dropped around there. The councillor had the key, so if we had to leave, we had to call her. She had to sit out there in her jeep and just wait until the water went down." Slew noted that it has rained every day since last week, turning her worry into a knot she can't untie.

"Even when we saw the river rising, they were saying maybe it's nothing. But I went on TikTok and saw people talking about it, so I knew it was serious," she said.

With sections of St Catherine already waterlogged, residents near the Rio Cobre say one more night of heavy rain could turn fear into disaster. Despite the danger, Slew and a handful of other divers respond whenever tragedy strikes, unpaid, self-taught, and driven by duty.

"We don't get any compensation other than trying to save a life," she said. "I do a little vlogging, and the people we save are the ones who turn around and help us. We get life jackets, a crowbar, and other gear from the same people we've saved." They once received a diving suit, but Slew dismissed it as impractical, as, in an emergency, there is no time to put it on.

"One of the things we would appreciate is to get some tankers we can bite into, so that when we jump off, we can stay under longer," she said. For Slew, death has become like a neighbour.

"We live metres away from destruction," she said quietly. "I only witnessed three suicides. I kinda get used to it. The first time I saved somebody, it traumatised me because I was giving her CPR, touching a dead body for the first time. It was traumatising."

Her training from a 2015 nursing course at The University of the West Indies helps her stay calm, but the memories linger. Every rescue begins with a particular sound that she listens for.

"In February, there was an accident. I was inside and heard the sound when it dropped off. I said, 'Jesus Christ, something gone inna the river.' When I looked out, the truck had stopped on the bridge -- but then I saw a car in the water," she said.

Down the road in Ackee Walk, a 56-year-old who identified herself as Ms Barnes, said she has lived through floods for decades.

"Most of the time we haffi walk," she said. "Nothing nah gwan from that side because there is no other entry point, one way in, one way out. When the road block, we haffi walk all the way from here go Bog Walk Highway. It's a good walk, but I take my time." She shook her head, remembering past floods that cut them off from the rest of Jamaica.

"Imagine the whole road flood off and we're cut off from the world. We just haffi pray and live and continue. If you don't have to go out, don't go out." Barnes said most houses are perched on the hillside, safe from rising water but vulnerable to isolation.

As the storm watch continues and the Rio Cobre churns below the bridge, Slew said her concern extends to Jamaicans who still choose to cross flooded roads.

"My warning will be to always have a life jacket in their car and a glass-breaker hammer," she said. "Always have a life jacket, because we're seeing why it is people sit in the vehicle and make the vehicle wash away with them. Also a seat-belt cutter and a glass cracker, these are important to have."