Floodwaters return to Penal, worsening challenges for residents

FLOODWATERS surged back into Penal on the afternoon of November 17, compounding hardships for residents who had only just begun to recover from a previous deluge earlier in the week.

Penal Debe Regional Corporation chairman Gowtam Maharaj said waters from floods which began between November 12 and 13 finally receded by November 16. However, heavy afternoon showers on already saturated land led to street flooding along Scotts Road Junction and Morne Diablo Junction on November 17.

"It's street flooding for now but remember the land is already saturated so we're just hoping that the rain don't continue. If the rain continues, of course, I think we'd be heading into (more) flooding."

Despite the water, he said up to 5 pm the roads were still accessible by vehicles.

Meanwhile, he said cleanup from last week's flooding was still underway but many residents were hampered by a lack of pipe-borne water.

He said the corporation was using four 200 gallons water tanks on pickups which were provided by Sewa TT to take water to residents who were in dire need.

"So we're doing multiple things at the same time. We're doing cleanup, we're doing delivery of water because potable water remains the major constraint and we are doing the initial damage assessment while we are dealing with some flooding."

He said many homes in the heavily impacted areas received a pipe-borne supply from the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) on November 13 and November 14 but those affected on the outskirts of these areas still had not received one.

"Their number of days without water have reached up to 14 days in some instances so that's now where we have to bridge that gap because all our focus would have been on the heavily flooded areas."

"It's a large area so it's thousands of people affected so you have to deal the different segments per se then. There's the heavily flooded areas which did get the water to be able to assist with the washing down but you have all of the other areas that we are dealing with in terms of trying to get some water to them."

Speaking in Parliament last week, Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Faris Al-Rawi said 600 CEPEP workers were mobilised to help with cleanup while hampers and cleaning supplies were also distributed. However, Maharaj said they did not "see the 600 warm bodies the minister spoke of."

Newsday was unable to reach Al-Rawi for a response.

The Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service placed the country under a yellow-level adverse weather alert on November 17 from 1.30 pm to 6 pm due to what it said was "a very moist and unstable atmosphere." It said this could result in rainfall totals up to 50 millimetres and winds in excess of 55 kilometres per hour. Included in the forecast were warnings of street and flash flooding and landslips.