(Trinidad Express) A woman fainted and children cried on Tuesday, as their parents desperately tried to salvage their belongings which were ravaged by Monday’s flash flooding.

The mid-afternoon showers caused the Guaracara River to break its banks and water gushed into 54 homes at the new Housing Development Corporation (HDC) estate at Riverdale Gardens, Harmony Hall, Gasparillo.

And as the flood water rose in some houses, children were hurried into the top floor bedrooms.

Antoinette Forde-Beckles said, “I have been living here for almost four years and I never experienced something like this. There are 54 townhouses in this development and every single one was affected. “The water came up five steps inside the house and we were afraid that if the rain continues it would reach upstairs. The children were waving their arms out the windows, begging for someone to help them.”

There are no fire escapes on the buildings.

Forde-Beckles said the homeowners lost appliances, furniture and food. A dozen vehicles were covered by the flood waters and a little boy was almost washed away in the water, she said.