Woodbrook residents fed up of flooding

Residents of Woodbrook, who were severely affected by the recent floods resulting from heavy rains deposited by Tropical Storm Emily, made their presence felt at Port-of-Spain City Council’s statutory meeting at City Hall on Thursday. It was the second time in 20 months that the residents had been hit hard, they complained, and they believe that some of the contributing factors are the cutting of the Maraval hills, and the Pricesmart and One Woodbrook Place projects. The residents believe that the regional corporations are not being vigilant where excavation works are being done, and this is allowing such problems to develop.

At the meeting yesterday, Councillor Wendell Stephens raised the residents’ plight, but the issue was forced to take a back seat for most of the session. Reliving the dreadful experiences with flooding, resident Gloria Hessic said, “My house was a river.  The last time we had to throw out everything and buy everything new because it was all carpet. Over $40,000 was spent to re-carpet the ground floor and, besides that, the man (her bed-ridden husband) nearly drown on the bed because all the slush and everything came back inside the house and they never really did anything about it.”

She noted that the problem is the drainage. “Since Pricesmart came there, that is when we started having the problem. When this flood took place, that is when all the water courses filled up,” lamented Hessic. Resident Hazel Anatol said, “The  whole of the contributory was flooded because the water came from the street and went straight into the contributory and it brought with it mud, slimy mud. The thing is we are thinking that the drainage is the main problem added to which the people from the corporation did not take up the garbage the night Emily came and garbage was floating down in big bags blocking the courses so the water couldn’t be released.”

Anatol added that at the end of her street (Dennis Mahabir) there is a rise at the corner, and the water from Hamilton Holder Street, Dennis Mahabir Street and Wrightson Road accumulates right at her corner and cannot run off fast enough, so it enters her yard. “I have lost my home comfort because I had to move and go to a friend for the half day until the water receded,” said Anatol. Monica Claveria, who lives at Dennis Mahabir Street, complained that her upholstered living room set has a 14-inch mark that the flood left. All her bedroom doors are gone, her kitchen cupboards are “flaking out,” and she had to get a new timer for her fridge. She said the cost is building up. She related, “I have been living here for 41 years and it’s only in October 2003 that, for the first time ever, we had flooding in the homes. And now 20 months later another flooding of the same kind? I mean that is highly ridiculous.”