Flooding in the City

Independence Square South and St Vincent Street were blanketed with water which spread westwards until Wrightson Road.

The high water levels made it nearly impossible for most vehicles, other than high-sitting trucks, to pass through. This forced driver to detour onto Abercromby Street, creating traffic congestion around Independence Square as lines of cars tried to avoid the water. At the southern end of Chacon Street, a lone car was submerged in the high level of water that continued to pour onto Independence Square South.

According to the Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service, the rainfall began at about 10:30 yesterday morning, and as the weather system moved west over the country, other regions, such as Piarco and Penal, were affected.

The severe weather conditions were the result of a surface trough, or an area of low atmospheric pressure, coupled with high daytime heating reaching 34 degrees Celsius.

At South Key, a typically busy area, the roads were almost completely bare of vehicles heading eastwards. Cars struggled to pass the intersection leading to the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway as pedestrians were scattering about in the roads, unable to utilise the sidewalks covered in water from the overflowing canals. Two vehicles entering Port-of-Spain from the east were stagnant at a traffic light as the driver of the first car continuously attempted to restart his vehicle that shut off due to overwhelming amount of water surrounding it.

“I want to go by the bus terminus but I can’t even get by the bus terminus,” a passerby stated as she crossed the intersection along with others attempting to access transportation in City Gate.

Other pedestrians, some hugging their children against their bodies and others raising their shopping bags above the water, clinged to the sides of buildings and sought shelter to avoid the continuous rainfall.

Dozens of individuals were huddled at street corners waiting for the water to subside so they could depart.

One pedestrian stated that she had been waiting on Broadway Street for over an hour and was unable to access her vehicle in a car park that was completely inaccessible due to the large volume of water that prevented mobility of any kind. In order to access transportation, travellers weaved in and out of the standstill traffic at the intersection and avoided the river of water that continued to spill onto the sidewalks on Broadway Street, forcing people to retreat into buildings or trek into the water.

Regarding other affected areas in the vicinity, Chief Executive Officer of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management, Dr Stephen Ramroop, identified Tragarete Road, Cocorite, and Carenage as being flooded and stated that the rainfall resulted in fallen trees on the Northcoast Road. Firefighters and personnel from the Ministry of Works and Transport were said to be at the scene.

While touring her area, Chairperson for the Diego Martin Regional Corporation, Katty-Ann Christopher, stated that although Carenage experienced high levels of rainfall, the water was subsiding and there were no reports of flooding in the region, but the Disaster Management Unit response team was on standby. She added that there were no significant consequences of the rainfall and attributed this to the cleaning of the water courses in the region by the corporation, which has been taking place over the past two months. Similarly, Chairperson for the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation, Edwin Gooding, stated that he received no reports of flooding or disasters in his area.