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Henry 'Keith' Lewis watched in agony as the rampaging Chalky River burst its banks, rushed through his yard and swept his car off its wheels on to its side. The bewildered Weise Road, Bull Bay, St Andrew resident, who was fighting with his grille to his door -- the river having washed debris into his yard, making it difficult for him to get inside his house -- was at the right place at the right time to save the life of a child who was being washed way.

"I tried to get in my house, but I couldn't opened the grille, and the next thing I saw was when the water just lift up my car and turn it over, and wash it away. Mi still a try go in mi house and can't go, and when mi look is the little girl mi see a wash weh a come in the floodwaters, and she a bawl out fi help, and a so mi grab her," Lewis said.

The lucky child, Tiandra Robinson, 11, was treated for several cuts and bruises at the Bustamante Hospital for Children. Her father, Leonard Robinson, says he is counting his blessings as his little girl's life was spared from the raging waters.

Robinson's house is literally buried with mud and he has lost all of his belongings after the river broke its banks, sending life-threatening murky water and debris through sections of the community. The grateful father said that when the Chalky River forced its way into his house, he left his daughter with his uncle to retrieve some documents next door.

"The way the water come down hard, mi couldn't go back over same time. When the water reached in my uncle room, he told her not to come out, but when she (his daughter) realised that the water had reached the dresser that she was standing on, she got panic and run out, and the water just sweep her away. Is mi neighbour see her and grabbed her. Mi can't thank him enough," Robinson said.

Pray for his niece

Tiandra's granduncle, Linwood Stephenson, said all he could do was pray for his niece as he watched from his bed as the water angrily swept her away. The senior citizen, who suffered a disability that prevents him from walking on his own, said the water that raced menacingly into his room was so high that it began to move his bed.

"Mi niece get coward and start call out fi her daddy, and when she can't hear him she panic, so she leave mi and go outside, and as she go outside the water just take her away. Mi just lay down and start pray fi her," he said.

The prayers were answered as Lewis was on hand to save Tiandra's life. Sunday's happening seemed surreal to him as he looked at his overturned car and surveyed the place where he rescued the terrified child.

Stephenson was also rescued from his bed by neighbours who braved the floodwaters. His dwelling, as well as that of Tiandra's dad, is partially submerged in mud, silt and stones.