Woodland blindsided by early flooding

“I don’t know what to think, we never had flooding so early in the season before.”

Moved to tears by the damage to her car, Woodland resident Geeta Reedhi says she was caught off guard when floodwaters rose in the wee hours of Monday.

She had spent hours the night before diligently monitoring her yard for any signs of flooding.

It was only when she finally fell asleep after midnight that the water came creeping in, half-submerging her car.

“It was very heart-breaking, I didn’t know what to think about it. I should have brought it (the car) out here before, but usually around September, we have flooding issues. So on Sunday, I thought it was a bit early for that kind of flooding,” Reedhi said.

She lives a stone’s throw away from the New Cut Channel in Woodland and has begrudgingly accepted the yearly flooding.

She usually parks her car on higher ground as the rainy season progresses, to save herself the heartache she now faces.

Her car remains parked by the road, the interior showing no sign of the muddy water that immobilised it. Reedhi has not been able to start it since.

Her husband’s tools, stored on the ground floor of their home, were also damaged. She said her daughter is a Form Four student and could not go to school, missing her end-of-term exams.

Reedhi is worried about what the rest of the season will bring.

“Every year is the same, but I am guessing it will be worse this year.”

Her neighbour, Haniff Ali-Bocas, answered her pleas for help to get the car to safety.

He too was on flood watch on Sunday night, before heading to bed around midnight.

“We went to sleep like normal, and is when I get up to use the toilet I realise water inside the house already.

“I wake up my wife and we start to move everything, we put up everything we could on heights and since then, we waiting for the water to go down.”

Ali-Bocas said he too has had to accept that floodwaters invading his home will be an annual occurrence.

“Twice, back-to-back in November, we get flood out.

"But what I could do? We telling them to dredge the riverbank, but they only coming with a water master, which they use to clean the garbage on the top of the water. But they need to dredge the river.

“All kinda thing (Works Minister) Rohan Sinanan doing, but I don’t know what he really doing. He setting we up bad.”

While Ali-Bocas was busy trying to pump floodwater out of his home, many of his neighbours were seen sitting on their flooded porches, looking out as the water surrounded their homes. One man was seen sipping coffee while the floodwaters swirled around him.

Several people waved at the Newsday team, but did not venture out.

President of the Woodland flood group Adesh Singh said the situation was the same throughout all the affected areas in the community as residents must wait for the water to subside before they can clean up.

He said the water had risen to three and a half feet in some areas. A flood gauge several hundred metres away from the river showed the water had crossed two feet.

He said many residents were caught off guard by the flooding.

“On Monday, it was totally dry until 11 pm, and then by 1 am, you had over 12 inches of water.

“At that time, people are tired, they are exhausted from trying to monitor what is happening. Many of them were asleep. They were only awakened when messages started to come in our (WhatsApp) group chat. When they checked and came out, one person said he jumped off his bed and into water.”

Singh said the overall feeling in the community was frustration.

“I am seeing grown men in a state of worry, women crying because they are fed up.

"How much more can they bear? How much can they spend again to replace the things they are losing?”

He said his group has been appealing to the Ministry of Works and Transport for proper maintenance of watercourses in the area for years.

But he said while work appears to be taking place, that appearance may be deceptive.

“We traverse the rivers, and it is sad to say, the work that is being done only takes place as far as the eye can see.

“We need some sort of supervision, some sort of accountability. Our tax dollars are being spent on this and we are not getting value for money.”

President of the South Oropouche Riverine Flood Action group Edward Moodie blasted the Government, saying his group has been sounding the alarm for months that parts of the riverbank were vulnerable.

“We warned the government this was going to happen;. We have multiple videos on Facebook showing the spots were identified that were going to breach.

“They did breach this year, and this entire bank has been compromised with poor engineering they did on this bank.”

Moodie said even if the Government offered “a few thousand dollars” in flood relief to residents, that cannot compensate for the stress the residents endure.

He said the Government continues to fall back on the “blame the people” mantra.

“By doing this shoddy work, you all have destroyed our people.

“Since 2017, year after year the same riverbank has been breaching. The entire country is facing this because of poor management of waterways,” he said.

Moodie estimated 800 homes were affected throughout Woodland after the river burst its banks.