Heavy rainfall brings flooding

Overnight rainfall flooded the main streets of Princes Town yesterday creating transport problems for students and other commuters. Traffic piled up for miles around the town area as drivers were forced to drive at snail’s pace.

Market vendors were most seriously affected since several of them were sent scampering to save their dry goods and other perishables from the rising flood waters which came swooping through the market like a river. According to Savitri Ramkisoon, the flood waters rose at around 9 am and vendors had to rush to salvage their goods.

Ramkisoon told Newsday the vendors did not expect the floods to rise so quickly. She recalled that just on Monday the sun was so hot they had to keep wetting their vegetables. “Today out of nowhere the floods came,” she said.  She noted that in the past years many of the vendors had to deal with heavy losses due to unexpected rainfall.  Last year, Ramkisoon reported a loss of more than $2,000 worth of tomatoes, lettuce and pigeon peas.

Another vendor, Sean Joseph, says that although the Princes Town Regional Corporation has done a lot to alleviate the flooding crisis in the newly constructed market, it was still not enough. Joseph blames the drain at the back of the market for the flooding. “The drain is too small, they need to widen the drain so that it can push out the water quickly,” he added. Joseph along with many others said this was not something new in Princes Town. The vendors also cited sand flies as another major problem to them.