Flood like never before

Carla Bridglal

In his 76 years, Harry Ramkhelawan of St John Trace, Fyzabad, has never seen flooding as he has now experienced after three days of nearly incessant rainfall.

“The water is still rising. It’s all in my house,” Ramkhelawan told Sunday Newsday as he waded through foot-high water to get to his front gate.

His neighbour Randy Soohkai had come to drop off some lunch.

Ramkhelawan and Sookhai are just two of the nearly 200 people living along the banks of the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Oropouche River. They are lucky. Their homes, while still flooded, are still habitable and they are able to escape. Their neighbours who live just a few kilometres down the street, closer to the river’s floodgates, have been marooned, accessible only by pirogue, trapped in their homes by floodwaters nearly four feet high.

“The rain started on Divali day, and the yard started to flood by the night. We went to sleep and in the morning, the house had flooded,” Sookhai said.

The water is deceptively deep, and roadways are indistinguishable from waterways. The sluice gates meant to control the flow of water aren’t working properly and have thus been breached. The only relief vehicles able to enter are boats, trucks or tractors. The area is low-lying, primarily farmland, and as a catchment area that eventually drains into Gulf of Paria via the Oropouche River, residents are bracing for even more floods and greater water levels as the run-off from higher areas starts to accumulate in their areas.

“Most of the people here are farmers—raising crops and cattle and other livestock. It’s difficult to tell the extent of the damage because people have simply not been able to leave their houses to assess their losses,” said alderman Denesh Sankersingh of the Siparia Regional Corporation.

Fyzabad MP Dr Lackram Bodoe visited residents on Friday. Yesterday, members of his constituency office, including Sankersingh and volunteers from the Friends of Fyzabad and the Honda Legends prepared hot meals to deliver to stranded residents.

Sankersingh and his colleagues loaded rescue pirogues with the food, as well as other relief supplies like water and mattresses.

He said the community was collecting donations to help those affected. Supplies needed include water, tarpaulins, mattresses, and cleaning products like bleach, disinfectant, soap, brooms and mops.

Those willing to contribute can call the constituency office at 677-7509 or 730 0003.