Castara residents call on T&TEC to secure fallen pole

Heavy winds and persistent rainfall over the weekend is being blamed for a fallen electricity pole in Castara and which one resident said she has been calling on T&TEC to secure for three decades now.

The fallen pole was one of some 50 incidents reported in Tobago over the past week as the island suffered the effects of inclement weather caused by an Inter Tropical Convergence Zone. (ITCZ).

Director of the Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), Allan Stewart, said 48 reports of incidents were received for the period October 19- 22. Stewart said that majority of reports were of fallen trees but there were also reports of landslides and floods in residential areas, of roofs being damaged, fallen trees affecting utilities and some structural damage.

He said reports were mainly from the northern side of the island in villages such as Bloody Bay, Castara, Friendsfield, Mason Hall, Calder Hall and Plymouth.

One Monday, with the worse of the bad weather appearing to be over, residents of Castara Village Street in Castara said the electricity pole came crashing down just around midday and remained leaning against a retaining wall along the roadway.

One resident, Hazel Walker, said that for years she has been calling T&TEC officials to remove a pole, which she said was planted in her yard, adjacent to the main road. Walker said no one was at home when the pole fell, that she received a phone call from her nephew, who was passing by at the moment, informing her of the mishap.

“I had just left home to go into Scarborough to run a few errands and by the time I reach Moriah, a relative of mine called me and tell me the pole fall, this was just around midday. It was expected because that area was never a good area to put the pole in the first place, that area is not solid and they (T&TEC) should have known better,” she said.

Walker said for some 30 years she has been making continuous reports to T&TEC officials, calling on them to remove the pole.

Keishon Walker shows the electricity pole fallen pole which fell on the backyard of the family home at Castara Village Street, Castara on Monday.

“My immediate reaction was to start to quarrel because is a long time now I have been telling them (T&TEC) about this pole… Recently the pole began leaning onto the wall and I again told them (T&TEC) about it. There were the signs that it would fall, it kept coming down to the wall, is everybody in T&TEC I kept telling about this pole.

“Even when they kept coming up here to cut trees and do all them things, I tell them about the pole. I told them about it, the pole kept leaning towards the wall,” she said.

Walker said the T&TEC responded to Monday’s report but she remains unhappy with the response.

“They came but I not seeing anything to say well we get a relief, everything still the same way. They came and just restored the current because when it fell, it took the current with it. They came, watch it and restore the current, it is like they saw no immediate threat, so they left it just as it,” Walker said.

She said she was really upset this was the end result.

“I am upset, very, very upset… this not looking good. Is years I making reports but no, they wait until it reach this stage. There are houses around, people walk these streets, luckily no one was injured, I mean it could have been worst. I just have to stay here and hope they respond to it in a timely manner now… there is nothing else I can do at this stage.

“They need to move this pole from here… It is not something that I can just take up and put by the side of the road till they come, I have to wait for them so this is now a wait and see situation,” she said.

Comments

"Castara residents call on T&TEC to secure fallen pole"

More in this section