Karen leaves man homeless

KINNESHA GEORGE-HARRY

Aloysius Adonis, 58, is thank­ful no one was hurt when his hillside home in Mason Hall came crashing down just with a landslide over a week ago.

Adonis, who lives alone, although his 15-year-old daughter visits occasionally, fled to his neighbour's house before his house collapsed in the early hours of September 22 during the passage of Tropical Storm Karen.

Pounding rains across the country triggered extensive flooding and damage to houses and commercial properties, felled trees and utility poles and tore roofs off houses. More than ten fishing boats, most in east Tobago, were damaged

Adonis' 20-by-20-foot two-bedroom ply structure at Belmont Road, Mason Hall could not escape Karen's rage.

A devastated and now homeless Adonis said he could not believe he had lost everything he owned.

"I've never seen anything like this. Everything was lost. I bought a lot of new household items; some I am still paying for. Everything is gone...they cannot be used again. Microwave, stove, fridge, TV, bed, washing machine, bed, mattress, all my clothes – everything, everything."

He recalled that he watched helplessly as the water from the property up above his came gushing down along with a landslide, carrying away everything in its path.

“I had been living in that house for the past nine years. Not in the wildest thought I ever imagined something like this would have happened. I never see water come down the hill like that, much less it brought a landslide with it,” he told Newsday on Monday.

To date, he has received no help.

“Actually, I tired right now…I’m tired. I have no fixed place of abode. I can’t rest as I would very well like. A friend might give me one night and another might just give me another night, but for me that is how it has been since.”

He said he now has to pick up the pieces and move on, as he is waiting and hoping that some kind of assistance comes soon.

Adonis, a labourer at the THA Division of Infrastructure, Quarries and the Environment, said the Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) told him to apply to the Social Services department for assistance.

“This morning (Monday) I went into Social Services to drop in the document from TEMA and, well, they said they would visit me, but I haven’t seen them as yet.

“I went into Self Help and I did make up an estimate and applied for their grant.”

Last Monday, Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles, TEMA director Allan Stewart and an official from Self Help toured areas critically damaged by the storm. Charles said he has spoken to Self Help and he has given the go-ahead to fast-track the procedure to provide aid.

He told Newsday previously, “We’re going to try to have it fast-tracked and we’re going to try to get a contractor to speedily do the necessary repairs. In the meantime, to the extent that social services must intervene, we would do that.

"To the extent that, as well, we need to ensure that those persons have some kind of cover – be it tarpaulin or otherwise, we would also do that. So that in this transition period, we’ll try to make their lives as comfortable as possible as we seek to do what is required to bring the situation, as far as they are concerned, back to normal.”

Anyone willing to help Adonis can contact him at 375-9615.