TT still cleaning after Bad Bret

One long week where some residents are trying to recover from damaged homes, blown off roofs and floodwaters.

Hundreds were affected, some with there homes under three and four feet of water. And to exacerbate the situation, there were intense showers over the weekend.

However, Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan said the ministry had the clean up efforts under control.

“Right now we have equipment all over. I got a report from Siparia today and the manager said they hired a contractor to rebuild areas that were damaged and to start to have the area pumped out. All the district managers have their instructions, and we have equipment in some of the major roadways.

“All the area managers know that we have to repair some of the major areas that were damaged and continue the clean up.

“We had started about three months ago with the major water courses which is something that should be done by a drainage programme. We want to put some more resources behind it.

There are some areas that may not have been maintained in the way they should have been, so it is something they we are going to ramp up,” Sinanan told Newsday.

The minister said he visited El Socorro South yesterday morning where they were having problems with the water pumps.

However the matter has since been rectified as they were able to bring in more pumps and the water had receded significantly.

Sinanan said the weekend rain did not hamper their clean-up efforts “I don’t think we would have gotten the amount that would have put us under any more pressure, but I’m glad we got some sunny weather. When I visited El Socorro this morning, which was one of the lowest areas, we still had some water there. Our people are out there working and we will get the results that we are looking for. I should be getting another report (today)” Sinanan said.

The minister said his ministry’s main priority was bringing relief to the people.

However, he could not say what could not put a figure as to how much damage Bret left behind.

As to sanitising homes in flooded areas, especially where there were outhouses with raw sewage and animal rearing, Sinanan said health departments in the regional corporations had a programme especially for this.

“The health department takes this very seriously, especially in the rainy season. I am sure the programme they have for that would have kicked in already.

This is something that they monitor even through the dry season, especially insect vector because with floods we have a lot of mosquitoes and so on,” he said.

Sinanan said he was also quite happy to see this time around people, most anyway, heeded warnings about venturing out into floodwaters since there was no way to tell what contaminants there were lurking there.

Chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation Martin Terry Rondon said his staff had been given assistance by the Port of Spain City Corporation which loaned them two water trucks and a cesspool truck.

Sangre Grande/Valencia sustained heavy damage with several residents having their roofs blown off.

In Sangre Grande, especially in Vega de Oropouche, Fishing Pond and Leemond, residents were literally swamped with muddy flood waters.

“Right now they are cleaning the cesspits and washing down all the houses. Leemond still has some water which has receded significantly. We are distributing bleach and sanitisers and disinfectant to residents to help with the clean up. They are also cleaning all the parks and recreation grounds,” Rondon said.

Valencia councillor Simone Gill said clean-up in Valencia has been going very well.

“The corporation has taken up some short term employment in each of the electoral districts so councillors were able to have burgesses in the area, with the volunteers they would have had, to assist with the clean up,” she said.

Gill said the Lockhart family of 15, of Evergreen Avenue, Valencia, were back home. Several members of the family had to seek shelter at the Valencia South Government Primary School after part of their roof was blown off.

She said the corporation donated a tarpaulin and through contributions in the neighbourhood they were able to purchase wood, nails and other materials for the family to make repairs.