Flooding nightmare in T&T

Neighbours look on as a family in
the Bamboo Settlement #2 area
Photo by Robert Collado

Eleven people whose homes were flooded out during weekend rains October 14-16 were moved to an emergency shelter located at the Eastern Indoor Sporting Complex near the Eddie Hart grounds in Tacarigua.

Several others, according to the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM), refused to move but the organisation said they were on stand-by and willing to even provide vehicles for those wishing to leave their stricken homes.

This was as several areas in North Trinidad remained under water following weekend rains which lasted seven hours during one of the spells.

Farmers in the Aranjuez area were hit hard as one of the tributary rivers that flow into the Caroni burst its banks and flooded several acres of patchouli, lettuce, cauliflower and cucumber under almost waist-high water. 

Rishi Ramsooharie, one of the farmers said, “Plenty farmers lost crops. My costs was about $25,000 and although we have had flooding before we really were not prepared for this kind of disaster. The thing is I cannot say if the Government should step in but we are really looking for help because what we spent we will not get back.”

Between Sunday and Monday clean-up efforts were underway in the St Augustine, Tunapuna,  Macoya, Golden Grove, Caroni, Aranguez, Maracas and Bamboo Settlement areas but with brief rainfall on Sunday coupled with high tides, the Caroni River which was in danger of bursting its banks, finally did so on Sunday night.

From around 8 p.m., the waters flowed into the yards and homes of residents in the Bamboo Settlement Number 2 area.