Awareness of dangers

But the passage of Brett and then isolated days of heavy rain twice since then have brought early flooding, landslips and tree falls to most neighbourhoods. The heavy rain in north Trinidad last Tuesday saw raging waters closing roads, flooding homes and trapping persons in their cars, workplaces and out by rivers in the Northern Range.

It could be said that the difficulties were generally not the faults of those trapped or inconvenienced.

The causes of flooding are not always the faults of the victims of flooding. But the causes are due to much more than heavy rain or “Acts of God”.

Most flooding incidents which we suffer have been caused or grossly aggravated by acts of man—cutting forests, bulldozing hills, blocking rivers and drains— and usually the people who have caused the problems are not affected by them.

However, for the group of “curry duck limers” on the bank of the Caura River, they need to accept responsibility for the predicament into which they had placed themselves.

Firstly the Meteorological Office had issued heavy rain warnings from the night before, and people should have postponed or cancelled their outing.

But since we refuse to acknowledge that dangers do exist during the rainy season, we do not check the weather or the warnings before we set out. The group set up their cookout across the river from where they had parked their cars.

Notwithstanding the bad weather warnings on radio they obviously were not monitoring the river flow until it was too late. And they were stuck on the far side of the eventually raging stream. There are warning signs of the river beginning to rise, if one knows to look for them. And on a day when warnings have been issued, it is the responsibility of leaders of the group to look out for these signs.

I, with two other hikers, were once lunching at Macajuel Pool on the Madamas River when we noticed the water rising. We were able to collect everything and scramble up a very steep bank to safety just as the torrent arrived. We clung precariously to trees on the steep bank before the flow subsided enough for us to begin trekking back along the river bank. On that day there were no clouds, no signs of rain, nothing until the water began rising. And it was not the Madamas River, but a tributary, the Miguel River which had collected a heavy but localised shower far up on Cerro del Aripo, and brought the torrent down.

We should all remember an incident a few years ago when a group of hikers in the Guanapo River were ill-advised to cross the raging river, holding on to a rope, and two were swept away to their deaths. It was not just a flooded river they were trying to cross; it was a deadly flow of water with huge stones and tree trunks which could break your legs even as you clung to the rope.

The Caura group was wise enough to stay put and suffer on the far side of the river, but they all survived that discomfort.

But while it should be easy to avoid flooded rivers out in the hills, it is not so easy in our built up areas. “Rivers” like the Diego Martin, Maraval and St. Anns (these are now large concrete drains) flowing through deforested valleys, cannot be controlled or restrained within the concrete canals. These rivers will overflow more and more often as the hillsides continue to be stripped, bulldozed and “galvanised”, pouring more and more water into drains which cannot be enlarged.

As the rivers overflow onto roads, there is a danger that cars can be swept away, and yet we see people try to drive through deeply flooded streets. When a vehicle with children is swept into the river and out to sea, maybe we will then start to respect flood waters.

We have a long rainy season ahead. We all need to be aware of the real dangers of flash flooding, and the longer term deep nuisance of rising water due to constant rain. The truth is that we are not prepared to cope with what will come. We have about six weeks before schools reopen, when rains and floods will aggravate the logistics of children’s travel and the concerns of parents who cannot get their children home.

Two imperatives arise: the ongoing clearing and dredging of all rivers and drains, especially at their outfalls; and the publication of a plan—if one exists— which i n s t ruc t s the population on the means of evacuation of population centres and floodprone areas.