Relief is coming

Newsday yesterday reported that up to 3,000 villagers in these vulnerable rural areas are in desperate need of food, water, mattresses and in some cases shelter as heavy winds blew the roofs of an undetermined number of houses.

Up to late last night, many were without power, as electricity poles were pounded down by the wind and rain. Water lines were also broken, according to reports, and damage to the infrastructure has been described as extensive. Responding to a question on this issue at the post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair, the Prime Minister said, “Our immediate response is to bring relief to people trapped inside of Matelot as we are making our way from Toco, clearing the landslides in towards Matelot.” Rowley said he has been kept abreast of what is happening there from Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan, who went up to Matelot yesterday with other personnel from his ministry.

“We are aware of the hardships being experienced by that area and also that Tobago has suffered some damage as well,” Rowley said. Indicating that the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) is in charge of what is taking place in Tobago, Rowley stated, “With respect to Matelot, You know that there is one road into Matelot along the coast and there are 11 locations along the road where landslides have come down.” The Prime Minister said equipment is on site and the Defence Force is also rendering assistance to the affected communities in north-east Trinidad. “There is an access problem which by now I hope would have been cleared sufficiently,” Rowley said. He also said “some bridges (in the area) have been damaged significantly.” On Wednesday, Sinanan indicated his ministry would be taking two bailey bridges up to Matelot.

Reiterating that restoring access to Matelot was top priority at this time, Rowley said, “When the access is reopened. We will make an immediate assessment.” The Prime Minister said he has already spoke with Sinanan that, “we will make special efforts to ensure that we do some reconstructing so that the people of Matelot in very short order will have the access back and that the immediate personal and household needs are met.” He added, “So we are on top of that. Hopefully by the end of the day, all the immediate relief from the various agencies would have been brought to bear and the situation would be under control.” The Prime Minister also said he has directed Finance Minister Colm Imbert to, “make whatever short term interventions that are required to respond to this development, which fortunately is only confined to one small area in the country.” Rowley explained that once a post-mortem of the situation is done, consideration would be given to ideas such as a relief centre in the Toco area and the placing of resources in the area to deal with natural disaster