RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Heavy rains and fierce winds wreaked hav­oc in Gas­par­il­lo yes­ter­day, dam­ag­ing 11 homes, top­pling tow­er­ing trees, wreck­ing a ve­hi­cle in­side a school and bring­ing down elec­tri­cal and ca­ble lines.

Last night, over 50 res­i­dents found them­selves in a des­per­ate search for al­ter­na­tive lodg­ing af­ter their homes were deemed un­safe due to the ex­ten­sive dam­age in­flict­ed by the un­re­lent­ing winds.

De­scribed as a tor­na­do by the res­i­dents, the pow­er­ful wind gusts be­gan blow­ing through Sur­prise Av­enue around 12.53 pm be­fore mov­ing on­to Peeko Av­enue and Ra­haman Dri­ve, leav­ing a trail of de­struc­tion.

De­scrib­ing the har­row­ing or­deal, Mau­reen Nob­bie, of Ra­haman Dri­ve, Hap­py Hill, said, “There was light­ning and thun­der, rain was falling hard. Then the gal­vanise start­ed to shake and bang. Then it was root­ed out by the wind and it start­ed to fly. I got up and ran. I turn off the stove. I was so fright­ened and fran­tic, I start­ed to call my chil­dren.”

Wen­dell Grant, of Bonne Aven­ture, said he too was ter­ri­fied.

“I heard the loud wind and af­ter that, it was just gal­vanise rip­ping up, and trees falling. I was fright­ened. It was the first time I ever ex­pe­ri­enced this kind of thing. It was hos­tile the way the wind blew. I was see­ing a whirl­wind, it was gath­er­ing all the gal­vanise in a cir­cle.

“A neigh­bour’s dog ken­nel broke down, all the pip­ing and plumb­ing mash up, and things were fly­ing in the air. The two wa­ter tanks al­so burst,” he re­called.

Ram­cha­ran Nanan, Grant’s neigh­bour, said he was shocked to see his neigh­bour’s roof fly­ing in the air.

“I was too afraid to look out be­cause things could hit you,” he said.

David Scar­let, whose en­tire home and pos­ses­sions were de­stroyed, said he came home from work to see the dev­as­ta­tion.

“The roof was com­plete­ly torn off. The TV in the liv­ing room fell, the liv­ing room was flood­ed, and tree branch­es were all over the yard. My bath­room is soaked and the ceil­ing tiles are com­plete­ly off,” he said.

Over at the Gas­par­il­lo Sec­ondary School, huge trees had been shred­ded by the wind, leav­ing bro­ken tree trunks on the ground.

Pres­i­dent of the school’s Par­ent/Teacher As­so­ci­a­tion Jo­cele Ray­mond said a teacher’s car was dam­aged.

In a video of the or­deal cir­cu­lat­ing on so­cial me­dia, ter­ri­fied stu­dents could be heard scream­ing in fear while the re­lent­less rain pen­e­trat­ed through the lou­vres. The pow­er­ful gusts of wind bore down on the tow­er­ing trees, rip­ping their crowns apart and caus­ing them to crash down.

Ray­mond said it was a mir­a­cle that no­body got hurt.
She said the rain last­ed for just about 15 min­utes.

Sham Ram­cha­ran, of Peeko Trace, said he was too scared to look out­side when the winds be­gan rum­bling past his house, tear­ing away tree branch­es and their roof.

Coun­cil­lor Ravi Pooran Ma­haraj, who toured the ar­eas yes­ter­day, told Guardian Me­dia 11 hous­es were left bad­ly bat­tered by the in­clement weath­er.

“The Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit has been on the ground. They de­liv­ered mat­tress­es, and T&TEC has been on the ground try­ing to re­store the pow­er,” Pooran said.

Late yes­ter­day, of­fi­cials from the Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit of the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro dis­trib­uted mat­tress­es, food and oth­er sup­plies to over 50 res­i­dents. Sev­er­al of them left their homes to stay with rel­a­tives, while oth­ers opt­ed to stay.