[UPDATED] Karen spares East Trinidad

RESIDENTS in east Trinidad breathed a sigh of relief as they were spared any major damage or floods from the severe weather associated with Tropical Storm Karen over the weekend.

A little less than a year ago, in October 2018, residents of Sangre Grande and environs and Greenvale Park were devastated when they were literally under several feet of water for days.

Many are still trying to recover from their losses so, with the threat Karen posed, they were apprehensive.

Government spent about $118 mil­lion to pro­vide flood re­lief in Greenvale.

Arima mayor Lisa Morris-Julien said she received no reports of flooding from citizens in her district, adding that the retention pond built in Greenvale did its job well.

“That retention pond worked perfectly. We were ready to mobilise our people, but the Tunapuna/ Piarco Regional Corporation (TPRC) had everything under control. The only thing really was the panic buying and the rush for sand bags.

We did all our safety checks on our senior citizens and the vulnerable who live near water courses and ensured everyone was okay.

Newsday reporter Elizabeth Gonzales, who lives in Greenvale, said she and her family left nothing to chance after last year’s harrowing experience.

“We sent all the children to relatives in St James. I wasn’t going to be fighting up with any flood with my son. Then the adults spent the day moving all our stuff upstairs, just in case. When the rain came, the drains did fill but the water ran into the retention pond. There was a guy in a backhoe up until 10 pm, and the pumps were working to push the water out. Thank God, nobody got flooded out.”

Chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation Terry Rondon said he was glad he had nothing to report except for one roof that collapsed in Tamana, and two fallen trees.

“Everything is A-OK, thank God. It was nothing like last year.”

During the heavy rains last October, scores of homes and businesses were affected by floods. Some people lost everything in their homes.

Chairman of the TPRC Paul Leacock said there was no significant damage except in Bamboo Number Two and Three. He said about two-thirds of the village was impacted by the flooding.

“Outside of that area, there wasn’t any significant damage to properties or homes or residents. Our bigger challenge is cleaning up in the area where the water would have been high. For instance, Cipriani (Labour College), we have a crew of ten, some trucks from WASA and other equipment trying to clean around the school.

“We had about 120 workers out in the field clearing small drains south of the highway over the last three months. We have decided to keep on a few of them to clean those we haven’t finished and retouch what we have already done. There were some trees that fell in Maracas. There is a rotted tree that we need to cut, but we can’t get to it because the soil is too wet for our equipment so we have to wait for it to dry a little.”

This story was originally published with the title "East Trinidad spared" and has been adjusted to include additional details. See original post below.

Residents in east Trinidad breathed a sigh of relief as they were spared any major damage or floods from the severe weather associated with Tropical Storm Karen over the weekend.

A little less than a year ago, in October 2018, residents of Sangre Grande and environs and Greenvale were devastated when they were literally under several feet of water for days. Many are still trying to recover from their losses so with the threat TS Karen posed, they were apprehensive, to say the least.

Arima mayor Lisa Morris-Julien said she received no reports of flooding from citizens in her district, adding that the retention pond built in Greenvale did its job well. Chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation Terry Rondon said he was glad he had nothing to report except for one roof that caved in in Tamana, and two fallen trees.