Winds rip roof off HDC block – 16 FAMILIES AT RISK

WITH the country still under an adverse weather yellow alert, at least 16 families remained at risk overnight after strong winds ripped the roof off a Housing Development Corporation (HDC) apartment complex in Trou Macaque, Laventille on Tuesday afternoon.

With only tarpaulin covering where sheets of galvanise were once in place, the families were fearing the worst as night fell, with more bad weather being predicted, since the adverse weather alert remained in place up to 12 noon on Wednesday.

This is the second disaster to befall this community, as an adjacent HDC building was gutted by fire in an arson attack in 2011. In that incident Lisa Charles, 46, Akeem Young, 15, Deniecia Campbell, two, and ten-month-old Destiny Lara all perished.

In 2016, Peter Hyde, who was charged with murdering the four, as well as 12 charges of arson, died by suicide while on remand at the Maximum Security Prison.

Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, Laventille West MP Fitzgerald Hinds said he visited the area on Monday to assess the pace of rebuilding at the burnt-out HDC complex.

As fate would have it, he said, the contractor hired to rebuild the burnt building was immediately hired by HDC to repair the rooftop of the nearby housing complex after the galvanise sheets were ripped off by the winds on Tuesday.

He said the cost of the emergency repairs could not be ascertained, but “no cost is too great.”

Members of four affected families told Newsday that in the past, they had complained to the HDC about the dilapidated state of the roof covering their units, but only “patchwork was done.”

When Newsday asked HDC managing director Jayselle McFarlane – who was also at the complex on Tuesday – about this claim, Hinds quickly interjected: “Let me answer that...I don't mind and I'm not being discourteous (to McFarlane).
"The HDC is responsible for thousands of units of state-provided accommodations since 1961. Buildings get older just like human beings. They deteriorate, they need management, they need repairs.”

McFarlane later said with the restructuring of the HDC, there is a list of housing communities that need repairs. Asked if Trou Macaque was one, given the residents’ complaint, she said she could not say at the moment and would have to check.

One of the affected residents, Emerlin Harding, said HDC workmen recently visited and did some repairs to her roof, replacing some of the rotted rafters with new pieces of wood. Newsday saw the new planks nailed to the old rafters.

She and other neighbours said that in May, another building had part of its roof blown off. That building was quickly repaired.

Harding recalled hearing her three-year-old granddaughter crying out, “Granny!” and when she checked, she saw grey skies, and rain falling in the room, as the roof was missing. The ceiling in other rooms also collapsed.

“Is years these buildings were built, since my grandmother's time and I don’t know her. They changed this ceiling already, but like it was a waste of time, because is some new board (placed) between old ones and it is the same way. Woodlice eating the wood.”

The 53-year-old said she is unsure what will become of her and the four other family members who lost everything due to water damage. She said she was one of the residents who had previously called on the HDC to repair the roof.

Another resident, Sheldon Charles, said he was at home when the roof over his head was ripped off. He said after “looking up and seeing grey skies” he began to panic. He managed to salvage some clothes, but everything else was soaked.

Charles, 50, said in his 19 years living in the apartment,  several calls were made to the HDC to repair the roof.

“How this building faces the east, we get strong winds whether it is a storm or even on normal days, and we would have heard the roof making a set of noise.”

Mother of two Ayanna Williams could not complete her interview with Newsday, as she began crying while recalling getting a call from a neighbour telling her the roof of her home was gone.

She said, like other affected families, she and her two daughters, aged ten and three, will not go to stay in the shelter provided, but will spend the night with relatives.

Workers from Cedeno Construction Ltd, the company hired to replace the roof, came and placed a tarpaulin over her apartment. Williams looked around in a daze as the men climbed on the roof to protect her waterlogged belongings from further damage.

As neighbours and workers assisted the tenants, one woman used the opportunity to sell some chenette, including to McFarlane and other HDC officials. The saleswoman boasted of having the sweetest chenette around.

Affected tenants were later offered mattresses, which some rejected, saying they had nowhere to put them, as the floors of their homes were soaked.
The HDC also facilitated meals for both tenants and workmen.