Woman’s body spent two days in closet - Residents recall hurricane victim’s final moments

Patricia Dillon was beside herself and appeared to be in a daze when THE STAR spoke with her last Friday.

Her face was stained with tears and her bandaged leg was smeared with dirt. The gash on her leg is not only a painful reminder of her near-death experience with Hurricane Melissa, but the death of her daughter, Netisha Cummings, who was not so lucky in escaping the storm's wrath.

"She and her boyfriend live in the house but the house come dung. All a we house come dung and we start run but the zinc fly and chop her up bad bad," she said.

News of Cummings' untimely death has extended far beyond her Ferris, Westmoreland, home to other sections of the island. The 32-year old mother of two died after she was injured by sheets of zinc as she and others tried to seek refuge at a house after theirs collapsed.

Easton 'Boysie' Bennett, a close friend of the family, said he watched in horror as the woman whom he had known all his life bled profusely. By this time, the roof of the house to which they had run for rescue was also being ripped away by the hurricane's wind.

"When she run come in, mi hear di rest a di guys bawl out say zinc chopped 'Puncy' (her nickname), and it nuh look like she ago make it. When mi go look, mi see say she get a chop on her leg and it go straight down to her bone. She get a next one on her hand and the guys dem take her and put her in the clothes closet," Bennett said.

As he stared at her in disbelief, Bennett said he called out her name hoping to get a response, but Cummings did not budge.

"She never move and she a bleed hard and mi a say 'Puncy, Puncy' but she nah talk. Mi feel her pulse and she nah breathe and deh so mi know she really nah go make it. Suh mi tell mi brethren say we gonna have to find a way to report it," she said.

Cummings' body remained in the house for another two days before it was removed to the morgue on Thursday.

"The whole time she was in the house, a whole heap a people go and look pon her body. We feel a way say her body was there so long, but we know say a because a di storm why dem never come take her out. Puncy just dead suh and leave her little children dem. Puncy a one nice little girl. Mi know her all of life eno and to see her just gone like that, it hard," he said.