US gives PDRC two boats for floods

On the one year anniversary of the passage of Tropical Storm Bret, Penal/ Debe Regional Corporation (PDRC) chairman, Dr Allen Sammy is predicting the corporation would experience the type of flooding which characterised last year.

He was speaking at the official handing over ceremony of two shallow search and rescue water craft donated by the United States Embassy Monday. “What is likely to happen this year will be no different from what occurred last year,” he said, adding no major works had been done by the Ministry of Works and Transport on the numerous watercourses which criss-crossed the region. The Corporation covers an area of 246 sq kilometres of which 60 per cent lies within the Oropouche drainage basin. The region is home to approximately 90,000 people. He said while other regions also experienced flooding which would subside in a matter of hours, flooding within the Penal/Debe region normally last for several days.

“Last year there were three different scenarios, one was Bret in June, and then we had one in Divali and then we had one on Old Year’s Day, now the impact of this is that farmers may have lost over three million dollars which includes crops and livestock,” he said. He said several households had also lost furniture and appliances while a number of homes were partially destroyed which resulted in families having to separate as they were forced to seek shelter at the homes of relatives.

“What is likely to happen this year unfortunately is no different. We are going to be flooded as much as last year perhaps more if we are to believe the weather forecasters where the weather is likely to be worse,” he said.

“We know that very little work has been done on the major watercourses, there are two principal ministries that are responsible for the cleaning of these watercourses, the ministry of works drainage division and the ministry of agriculture and both of them have not done what we expected of them.”

He said families were a “little bit more prepared” as they had stocked up on sand bags and other emergency items.

“But the fact that we have to talk about sand bags is unfortunate if we know that over the past year corrective action could have been taken and it was not in the comprehensive what had been proposed,” he said.

In his remarks, US deputy Chief of Mission John McIntyre said he had witnessed first-hand the devastating effects of the floods during his two tours of duty.

“Heading into another wet season, it is essential that we do whatever we can with the resources available, to help mitigate some of the effects on families, businesses, and institutions to ensure public safety and security,” McIntyre said.

“During October 2017, torrential rains and flooding as high as four feet led to the isolation of various communities in the South. While roads and homes were flooded, the Corporation worked tirelessly with the assistance of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force to respond to the needs of the communities,” he said. He said the initiative to provide the two dingys was done with the assistance of the TTDF engineers.

“The US government’s partnership with Trinidad and Tobago is not here today, gone tomorrow. We follow up, we cover the nitty gritty, non-glamorous issues of disaster preparedness, and we are with you during times of need,” he said.