TEMA gets 345 reports after bad weather in Tobago

Tobago Emergency Management Agency director Allan Stewart says reports of land slippage, damage to property and other incidents arising out of Wednesday's tropical wave, invest #91L, are increasing.

He told Sunday Newsday the agency is now responding to more than 345 reports, including a landslide which is threatening the Courland monument in Plymouth, one of Tobago's historical sites.

In a video posted on its Facebook page on Saturday, TEMA said the landslide occurred at the back of the Plymouth Recreational Ground.

It showed rocks tumbling into the beach. The agency said the relevant authorities were notified. It advised beachgoers to be vigilant.

Stewart said the landslide was reported to the THA Division of Infrastructure, Quarries and Urban Development.

'They must now determine how they want to treat with it." He said relief and clean-up efforts and damage assessments are ongoing across the island.

'The emergency teams are out today again and they are doing clean up for residential properties, trying to assist in getting some roadways cleared to private properties that require mechanical use. So that is ongoing and we are up to 345 reports."

Meanwhile, Brandon Hercules, whose family home in Delaford was partially destroyed by a landslide on Wednesday, said he and his mother, Lyn O'Neil, are currently staying at a guesthouse in Betsy's Hope.

But he said they will have to leave by today (Sunday). Hercules said social services division is arranging for them to stay at another place for about three months in the first instance.

"I have to get some documents to send to them by Monday so by then we should know where we are going next." Hercules said his mother is feeling stressed by the incident.

"She is still trembling because she was in the drawing room and I was in the front bedroom when the landslide came. But she will be good."

He said they are receiving support from family and friends. Hercules is hoping the relief agencies will respond to their plight in a timely fashion.

At a news conference on Friday at TEMA's headquarters in Bacolet, Chief Secretary Farley Augustine said various departments of the Division of Infrastructure were working with the TEMA to get the island back to some semblance of normalcy on Monday. He said the division's staff and machinery have been deployed and will be working throughout the weekend.

Augustine said almost 70 people from about ten families had to be relocated as a result of damage to their properties from the tropical wave.

He added he was concerned about the inability of public infrastructure to withstand the effects of the tropical wave or more intense weather systems in the future. Augustine also urged Tobagonians to be mindful about how and where they could build their homes.