Distress

In St Helena, people remained marooned in their houses when murky, brown water invaded bedrooms, porches, living rooms and kitchens as the Caroni River burst its bank and flooded the surrounding area.

The old Piarco Road on the perimeter of the runway of Piarco International Airport was under four feet of water in some places — virtually impassable save and except with the use of a van, truck or tractor. In Sangre Grande large sections of land covering people’s homes, yards, roads, traces and recreation grounds were under water.

Mukesh Motilal sat in front of his neighbour’s house at Mohepath Trace in St Helena, with a dazed look on his face. As he stared at the water flowing through his house, Motilal was at first at a loss for words. “What I could say again...this is not the first time I get flood out. But this definitely the worst,” Motilal said.

“The only thing that dry right now is the clothes on my back.

The bed, fridge, washing machine, stove...everything under water right now. I could not even move my belongings to another house because as you can see, the water covering everywhere. And is not only me alone who lose everything,” he added.

Over at Green Street in St Helena, Kishan Gangasingh and his family were also counting their losses. Flood water flowed through their home leaving no dry place for Gangasingh, his wife and their two daughters, one just four months, to sit. “The house is totally flooded out. All the baby’s clothes, pampers everything wet. We were sleeping when all of a sudden water came into the house. The flood rose swiftly and we had no time to move our appliances or take clothes out of the drawers,” Gangasingh said.

In Sangre Grande, Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan and Sangre Grande Regional Corporation chairman Martin ‘Terry’ Rondon were getting an eyeful of the flood damage.

Leemond Village was a virtual lake and residents could do nothing except sit and wait for the water to recede.

Sinanan said one of the main causes of flooding is unplanned development where land that would not be passed for building purposes, is purchased and developed in a manner that caused flooding.

Without proper permission from Town and Country, Sinanan said, people are buying land that ought not to be developed. Some of these lands are water courses and are developed either to live, rent or sell over at a profit by these people who do not care that this development would cause massive flooding.

Sinanan later instructed that all URP and Cepep gangs be brought in to assist flood-stricken residents with the clean up. “I want all the URP people coming into the area and helping the people.

Don’t have no URP people going and cut any grass. Let them come and help these people who got got damaged with flood,” Sinanan instructed Ministry officials who accompanied him on the tour.

Clean up operations were underway yesterday at Oropune Gardens in Piarco, as the Housing Development Corporation’s (HDC) clean up crews moved in to wash away mud and slush left by Bret.