Penal under water

Residents of Siew Trace, Debe, walk through flood waters after being forced to leave their homes.
Residents of Siew Trace, Debe, walk through flood waters after being forced to leave their homes.

While some Penal families were virtually marooned in their homes, others were forced to flee theirs and seek refuge in makeshift tents as rising flood waters virtually rendered their homes uninhabitable yesterday.

Among the hardest hit were residents of Suchit Trace, Penal, where Patricia Ramdain said her family slept in their vehicles on Thursday night. “Everything inside is water,” she said. “My mother, brothers, uncles, everyone had to leave their houses because of the flood. To go in the house is waist-high water and everything in water. We had to go by a next aunt who lives at Duncan Village in order to bathe and get some food.”

Ramdain said the flood waters began to rise early on Thursday morning then it peaked during the night covering the downstairs of the family’s house. She said the flooding was the worst she has ever experienced and blamed it on the incomplete highway to Point Fortin. She believes proper drainage had not been put in place when the highway’s foundation was laid. Ramdain said no one had visited the family to offer assistance until yesterday.

Meanwhile, Vincent Ramnath, who lives on the corner of Boodoo and Siew Traces, Penal, said his family of approximately 11 people were marooned in their homes.

“The water is stagnant,” Ramnath said. “It is not going down at all. The water level is right where it is since yesterday morning.”

He said the family’s biggest concern was drinking water. They were unable to use their water pump, which was also under water, to access water from their tanks. “We are really fearful that the bridge leading to this area would be swept away by the floods and then the whole area would be cut off from the rest of Penal. We didn’t expect this kind of thing because in a matter of hours, the water just come up on Thursday evening.”

He said the excessive rainfall, coupled with inadequate dredging of the main river, had led to the flooding which had not been experienced in several years.

Sudesh Ramsaroop points to his crops of tomatoes and peppers in Caparo, yesterday.

Caparo farmer Sudesh Ramsaroop who cultivates short crops on a parcel of land near the Caparo River, told Newsday he lost all his crops including sweet peppers, patchoi and tomatoes.

Another Caparo resident Ambika Ramjuewan said her family did not have any Divali celebrations on Wednesday night. “We just had to make sure everything was put right up on shelves because the water came up really high. Today is the second time in one week that the water come up so high.”

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