The painstaking clean-up exercise has begun for most flood-affected residents of Mafeking, Mayaro, as most of the flood waters receded from the roadway yesterday. However, Mayaro/Rio Claro Regional Corporation chairman Hazarie Ramdeen said many residents were still marooned in their homes. Ramdeen, speaking with the T&T Guardian yesterday, said the corporation, with the assistance of Mayaro MP Winston “Gypsy” Peters, the Eastern Regional Health Authority and Coast Guard, had worked tirelessly to provide the much needed relief to the affected residents.
Peters, he said, met with marooned residents in Cedar Grove, all of whom were unable to leave their homes since Thursday because of the flood waters. He said Peters, using a boat, delivered hampers, water and other items to the affected residents. Calls to Peters’s cellphone went unanswered yesterday. Ramdeen said in the dark situation the one silver lining for Mayaro was that the community came together to help each other in their time of need. “There are residents who are still marooned in some instances. The water went down and the road is very, very clear and anything could pass. “However, we have another problem where the road in Manzanilla has been cut off. We have had corporation trucks running up and down the road taking people in and out of Mayaro. Boat owners have come forward to help us deliver relief to residents at no cost,” Ramdeen said.
Kervon Hughes, captain of one of the boats being used in the relief efforts, said he and his crew opted to help fellow residents because the flooding situation was bad. “We took my boat up to second village in Cedar Grove to get food and water to the people and it have about 75 people that could not come out the house. People were swimming in the flood waters to come and meet us to get help. “It was really a terrible situation,” Hughes said. He commended the corporation for working feverishly to assist the residents ravaged by the flood waters.
Mobile health clinic set up
Yesterday, a medical team from the Eastern Regional Health Authority, led by CEO Ameena Ali, together with deputy chairman Sandeep Maharaj, toured the area and provided medical supplies to residents. Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan, speaking by telephone, said a mobile clinic had been set up in Mayaro to treat with any medical situations in the area.
He said the ERHA had also put systems in place for the transport of food item, pharmaceuticals and necessary drugs for residents who are stranded and cannot get out. “There were some people who lost their gluco-metres and diabetic devices in the actual flood itself,” Khan said. “So we were able to give them new ones with strips et cetera. I also learnt that the patients who were supposed to have dialysis, and according to reports, they could not get it, were dialysed on Saturday.”
Maharaj said the Mayaro and Rio Claro health centres will be open 24 hours and will have a doctor and nurse available to provide medical assistance to residents who may require treatment. He also said arrangements have been made for patients requiring specialised services, such as dialysis, to be taken to the Sangre Grande hospital.
Yesterday, the Manzanilla road was cordoned off after a large portion collapsed under the pressure of flood waters. Maharaj said arrangements have been made to transport patients using the Biche to Sangre Grande road for medical emergencies. Ramdeen said the corporation’s cesspool trucks also started cleaning tanks in the Mayaro area and public health/insect vector control personnel will be spraying and sanitising the area.