Bad weather left residents of east Trinidad marooned as rivers overflowed their banks, landslides and fallen trees blocked roads along the Toco Main Road. Chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation, Terry Rondon said yesterday there were landslides at Cumaca, Valencia, and flooding at Tompire South Bank, Cumana, Matura, Matelot, Toco and Valencia. A roof from a house at Farfan Trace, Balandra, also blew off as a result of strong winds, he said, and two huge trees fell across the roadway at Salybia Bay and Toco. “From 2 am to 7 am yesterday received about 70 phone calls of persons in distress because the rivers—including the Matura, Valencia and Vega de Oropouche—had bursts their banks, causing them to be marooned in their homes and endangering their livestock and pets,” Rondon said.
One major problem that occurred, he added, was the response time for officials at the corporation’s Disaster Management Unit (DMU). “Some of them could not get to Toco in time to render assistance to the people up there because of the distance, given the bad weather. The flood was disastrous. We need a Disaster Management Unit in Toco and I am not going to give up lobbying for this from now on. I have to fight for it because experiencing this first hand I know how the situation is.” Rondon said up to late yesterday, officials at the DMU were carrying out respective assessments. “Also, over the weekend two fishermen lost their boats because of the rough seas. Toco was really struck terrible this weekend,” he said. He also warned people to refrain from erecting dwelling houses along riverbanks.
Flood Warning
The Met Service in a 6 pm bulletin issued a Riverine Flood Alert and said the rainfall was associated to the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). People living in the Caroni River Basin were warned to be on the alert for rising river levels and possible overspill.