Residents in the flood-ravaged village of Mafeking spent the better part of their day yesterday cleaning up and throwing out flood-soaked furniture and appliances. Some of them washed and scrubbed their walls and floors themselves, while others were assisted by CEPEP crews. But even as they washed away the remnants of three days of flood waters from their homes, they kept an eye on the weather patterns, fearing a repeat of a disastrous flood of seven years ago. Their fears were magnified as the area remained under Level Two alert as issued by the Office of Disaster Preparedness (ODPM) on Sunday, when rising flood waters washed away almost four miles of the Mayaro/Manzanilla roadway.
The ODPM also issued a release yesterday saying teams will be sent in to assess the damage today and there will be additional resources sent in to assist the residents. The T&T Guardian visited Mayaro residents yesterday and witnessed some of the clean-up efforts by scores of residents marooned since last Thursday, when the Ortoire River burst its banks after days of persistent rainfall.
“In 2007 we had a flood something like this. After three days the water went down,” Chrysostom Trace resident Dale Mohammed said. “But the rain keep falling and falling and two days later it was flood again.”
Mohammed and his neighbours looked up at the dark skies with worry and fear as he spoke.
Over in Inner Mafeking Village, 62-year-old Stanley Myler also recalled the floods of 2007 as he went about his clean-up activities.
“We did get it back-to-back that time. It wasn’t so high like this time, but we only hoping the rain ease off a little this time,” Myler said.
His wife, Angela, lamented the late response of emergency personnel, saying, “They come quite Saturday and give we a bag of bread and a case of water, what that could do?”
Several other residents, including mother of four Annmarie Serano, also complained about the lack of assistance her family received.
“I buy that two months now, you know how hard that is for me?” she asked as she looked at the living room set she had purchased two months ago as it lay water-logged in the yard. “And we not seeing nobody to help we, to tell we what we could get help to get back.”
‘Level 2 not needed’
Mayaro MP Winston Gypsy Peters yesterday questioned the ODPM’s decision to heighten the alert level for flood-stricken areas in his constituency, noting waters had receded and clean-up efforts were under way in the eastern coast fishing villages. Speaking to the T&T Guardian at the regional corporation sub-office in Radix Village, Mayaro, Peters said residents no longer need to be evacuated from their homes.
The ODPM issued a release yesterday saying the area was under Level Two alert and more resources would be sent out to Tunapuna, Sangre Grande and Mayaro/Manzanilla, following the collapse of almost four miles of the Mayaro/Manzanilla roadway on Sunday. The release also said teams will be sent in to assess the damage today.
“What they want to take people to the civic centre (emergency shelter) now for?” Peters asked. “People homes don’t have water any more, they have been given mattresses and will be given more.”
Peters was responding to statements by incident manager of the Diaster Management Unit (DMU), Earl Hernandez, that residents will not be given any more meals or mattresses, but could be evacuated to the shelter because the alert was now level two.
“I understand what they are doing, but I am MP for the area and I will continue to give out whatever assistance to people that I can."