Belmont residents hardest-hit by Port of Spain floods

PARTS of Port of Spain and environs were hit by floodwaters on Sunday after heavy rain.

Commuters were left stranded in City Gate as South Quay flooded while one motorist was even seen pushing his car through floodwaters on Independence Square.

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) also reported flooding near Riverside Plaza and a fallen tree in Laventille.

Belmont was particularly hard hit with residents reporting a torrent of water flowing along St Francois Valley Road and Belmont Circular Road.

Newsday visited the area and was greeted by debris and the stench of a rotting animal along Belmont Circular Road, and other streets with pavements covered in sludge and debris deposited by the raging floodwater as it receded.

An abandoned telephone pole which was left lying at the side of the road was pushed into the middle of Pelham Street by the flood and had to be pushed aside by residents, many of whom said the floods were "nothing new."

Debris were gathered into small piles at the side of several streets after residents attempted to clean the pavement in front of their homes.

Barry Cumberbatch, 75, told Newsday he came home after the rains to discover his yard flooded and parts of it, near to the road, covered in several inches of thick mud.

He said he slipped and fell while trying to cross the mud to enter the yard of his St Francois Valley Road home.

When Newsday arrived, Cumberbatch, shirtless and wearing a back brace, pointed to the sludge and said it was the worst flooding he had seen for the year.

The lifelong Belmont resident said he hoped the floods would not get any worse.

“We had two or three floods so far but this one is bad. We usually get an extra-heavy flood near the end of the rainy season so I hope this was it.”

He said the community always tried to do some immediate cleaning in the aftermath but a lack of water hampered their efforts.

“We have no water. The water trickling so I have to wait for the bucket to full so I could come outside and wash down the yard….We does clean up because you see that dust when the mud dries, that dust not right.”

Another St Francois Valley road resident, Anton Holder, said the issue had been a long-standing one.

“For years it’s been affecting the neighbours and the community on this side. I used to hear stories from my grandmother about the road (when it rains). I could remember as a little boy playing football in the road and the water almost take me away. So this is happening for decades now.

“Up to today it becomes like a river when the rain is heavy. All the shops had to close today because we had almost three feet of water coming down the road. There is nothing we can do about it. This is something we are living with for years.”

Kent Cumberbatch, who lives on Belmont Circular Road, told Newsday Sunday’s flood brought more debris with it than usual.

“Anytime they get heavy rainfall, this road floods. I wouldn’t say it flooded more than usual or that it was worse than any time for the year so far, but a lot of stuff came down this time, a lot of debris.”

Cumberbatch said he hoped the Port of Spain City Corporation would remove the rotting animal before the stench worsened.

Two residents, who were seen shovelling sludge from the roadside drain on Jerningham Avenue, praised the councillors and aldermen in the Port of Spain City Corporation for their quick responses to their plight.

Councillor Nicole Young and Alderman Wade Coker came in for particular praise from multiple residents who said they were “out and about” in the community to answer questions about clean-up operations.

Young told Newsday the majority of the damage was cosmetic.

“We will target the removal of the large debris and then wash down the silt that would have (settled) in the road. While it was severe in terms of the amount of water, not many homes were impacted. There were two homes that were flooded but most of the damage is just the silt on the road and the debris.”

She said clean-up operations in Belmont would begin as early as 4 am on Monday along St Francois Valley Road and, hopefully, be completed before people began to move about to go to work and school.

The Port of Spain City Corporation, San Juan-Laventille Regional Corporation and TT Fire Service began clean-up operations in other areas on Sunday night.