Rain wreaks havoc in T&T

(Trinidad Express) Residents of parts of East and Central Trinidad, already suffering after weekend floods, braced for more rainfall today, with scattered showers and thunder showers expected to add to an already frustrating situation.

The Express visited Macoya, St Augustine, Caroni and North Coast Road yesterday and while some areas were being cleaned, the residents of other stricken communities not yet getting assistance found that the operation was “slow and disorganised”.

According to the Met Office at Piarco, it rained for almost seven hours on Saturday.

It again rained briefly yesterday afternoon which hampered the clean-up efforts in some areas

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) reported areas that remained under flood waters included Pasea Link Road, Caroni, Bamboo Settlement, St Augustine South, San Raphael, Manuel Congo and Vega De Oropouche.

Motorists travelling to Maracas Bay and other beaches on the North Coast had to turn their vehicles around when a landslide struck, straddling the road just before “the lookout”.

The police were at pains to inform motorists to cancel their beach trip as the line of cars hampered relief vehicles from getting to the scene.

In parts of Caroni, both livestock and crop farmers suffered tremendous losses, with reports last night of several thousand dollars worth of animals being killed by the floods.

In Macoya, farmers said they too lost thousands of dollars worth of crops.

One Macoya farmer, Hardeo Armoogam, said some of his cabbage crop was ruined.

The Express toured his garden yesterday as Armoogam explained that although the produce looked fresh, green and healthy, he tore open one of the cabbages to point out that mud and muddy water had seeped through to the inner part of the vegetable.

“By the time this is harvested by next week, the muddy water and mud would have rotted it, making it inedible,” he said. “I will not be able to sell a cabbage in that condition.”

In other areas the situation was even more grim.

At Streatham Lodge Road, St Augustine, residents were seen scooping mud and bits of debris out of their homes.

Teams from the Tunapuna Piarco Regional Corporation and the Community-Based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme (CEPEP) were seen busily washing mud off the roads in the area, but residents said that it was in their homes and yards they needed the most assistance.

One woman who has to use a wheelchair to move around said she had to be rescued out of her home.

She said her home started flooding around 8 p.m. on Saturday.

“In quick time the water start to come up by my house and I am diabetic so my brother and nephew had to rescue me. I don’t know what I would have done if they were not there,” she said.

Another resident, Ishmael Ali, said that he, along with his neighbours, had a lot of water in his house.

“I lost everything, but what will I do? I had to seek shelter with the neighbours,” he said.