Family of five out in the cold

A PENAL family of five experienced sheer terror when a landslip sent their humble wooden house crashing down just after midday on Sunday.

The Roopnarine family of Timital, San Francique was going about their normal Sunday routine when they heard a loud noise and the surrounding landscape and roadway came tumbling on to their wooden house.

Felicia Roopnarine, 35, said she was cooking when the incident took place and her only reaction was to scream at her children aged two, six, and 11 to run into the bedroom with their father, Ramesh, 41.

“I yelled at them to get to the bedroom. One of my daughter was in the bathroom so we could not get to her. She escaped but suffered minor injuries.

“The rest of us came tumbling down with the house. The mattress sort of broke the fall for my other two children. My husband and I were injured on our legs and arms.” She said that recent bad weather coupled with abandoned roadworks contributed to the land slipping away and causing havoc this time.

Roopnarine explained that they have been trying for years to get the authorities to attend to the road which was left unfinished almost five years ago. “Since the government changed office, the road works have stopped. The water seeped under our house and the earth was slowly being washed away,” she said.

Roopnarine said they lost everything and up to late Sunday evening were trying to salvage some clothes. They have nowhere to stay, she said, and have been taken in for the night by a relative.

“We doh have enough money to pull out just like that to rebuild. My husband works as an air condition technician but his work has slowed because of covid19 and I am home until school reopens,” the anguished woman said.

Nicholas Rampersad, a representative at the office of Oropouche West MP Vidia Gayadeen-Gopeesingh said that for years, the MP had been lobbying government to have work resumed on the road to prevent the very thing that happened to the Roopnarine family. Anyone wishing to assist the Roopnarine family can call 390- 5021.