When the retaining wall along Palmetto Road in Devonshire collapsed some time around 4:30am yesterday, Anita Peet was lying awake, listening to the rain.

“And then I heard a rumbling,” she said outside her now badly damaged home on Perimeter Lane, some seven hours later.

Amid a sea of Works and Engineering coveralls, firefighters, family and neighbours, Mrs Peet, dressed in a flowery pink top and a fanny-pack around her waist, stood in stark contrast to the chaotic scene surrounding her.

“I jumped up, looked out the window and my husband came rushing in, saying: ‘The house is flooding! The house is flooding!’ I said what do you mean flooding, we’re upstairs!

“We’re standing in water without our contact lenses, everything’s dark, we can’t see and water is coming rushing in. I’m just trying to grab things off the floor, still wondering where this water is coming from.

“Water was just gushing in the front door. The bottom of the door had been pushed in by the mud, and the water and mud were just rushing in the front door.”

After clearing their two children out of the house, and a few failed flashlights, Mrs Peet and her husband would have to wait until dawn to properly assess the situation.

“You start looking around, ‘Oh, my God!’ And as it started getting light we see all of this,” she said, gesturing to the hill above her house, now strewn with broken blocks of concrete, utility poles, and other assorted debris.

“[I’m] still in shock. I could use some breakfast. I have two children. My father-in-law came and took them, thankfully. They were in the house as well, in their beds. We’re just very thankful [nobody was hurt]. That’s how I’m feeling right now, I’m very thankful.”

Exactly why the retaining wall collapsed, bringing down utility poles and knocking out power for 20 residents in the area, is not clear. The area on Palmetto Road above her house often floods, said Mrs Peet, who guessed “the wall just gave way and everything came with it.”

Her landlord, John Roach, was less mystified.

“The last time we had a lot of rain, and the time before that, [Palmetto Road] had to be shut off because there was so much water in the road, and it drains slowly. It would take most of the day before you get it back down to a level where cars can pass.

“Water had run down the bank before with hard rain, but it managed to bypass us. The rain wasn’t so steady, so it didn’t create that pressure. I was more surprised this time. I heard water going down the sides as usual, but then came the bang-bang, and that’s when everything came down. So it was not unusual. It’s something that’s always put on the back-burner.”

In the House of Assembly yesterday, shadow Public Works Minister Michael Weeks said he had raised the issue of the retaining walls on Palmetto Road “on a few occasions,” and had asked Department of Planning engineers to investigate their stability.

“The question is how soon will this be addressed, and what is going to be the cost to the residents?” Mr Weeks asked Public Works Minister Patricia Gordon-Pamplin.

Minister Gordon-Pamplin said it was too premature to be estimating a cost for the repairs.

“We are not even yet sure how stable that cliff face is at this moment. I had the opportunity to go on site and look at it and even the Police department made me wait on the other side of the street. There is a safety issue, so we don’t really know at this point.

“As soon as the engineers are able to evaluate the safety of the structure, that they will be able to get a whole picture. I will continue to update this honourable house with respect to developments and the resolution to these challenges. It is a priority for me, and I will make sure to keep this honourable house apprised.”