Minister promises to re-build house

ONE Gonzales resident and her family have been forced to occupy half of their two-storey Blackette Hill home when the kitchen and storage areas of the house snapped off during the heavy rainfall of Saturday afternoon. Yesterday morning, Minister of Health and MP for Port-of-Spain North/St Ann’s West, John Rahael visited the broken home along with an architect who, according to the owner, is to prepare an estimate of the damages in order to offer assistance in repairing it. Eunalia Roberts and her seven children, ranging in age from two to 23, are presently at the mercy of the elements, both natural and criminal.

“I moved here in June of last year and I have been fighting up to renovate it piece by piece. My cupboards are damaged, all my wares are broken up, all the photos I had up in the house, all of it gone,” said an emotional Roberts. With the rain falling as she spoke to Newsday Roberts added, “now with this rain falling constantly I don’t know what will happen next. The water is running and settling under the house and that might cause the other half to come down.”

The distraught woman managed to salvage what she could and erect a temporary barrier of galvanize and wood to prevent excess rain and wind from entering the cracked area of the building however she expressed her fear of criminal activity. Robert’s voice cracked as she said, “I didn’t even sleep last night, you know out here is a high risk area. There was a murder in front of my house recently. When I ask the people who came to evaluate the damage if it was structurally safe to remain in the other half of the building some said yes and others seemed skeptical. The fact is that I have nowhere to go with my children so I have to stay here.”