Shas­tri Boodan

Over 100 roofs were dam­aged in cen­tral Trinidad fol­low­ing the pass­ing of a trop­i­cal wave on Thurs­day night.

Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion (CT­TRC) chair­man Hen­ry Awong yes­ter­day said the CT­TRC got 66 re­ports of dam­aged roofs, 14 re­ports of trees falling on hous­es and eight re­ports of trees falling on roads.

Awong said the hard­est hit area was Las Lo­mas, with more than 20 re­ports of roofs be­ing dam­aged.

He called on res­i­dents to en­sure their roofs were equipped with hur­ri­cane straps or bolt­ed down prop­er­ly.

Awong said the CTR­RC will be work­ing with the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties to bring re­lief to the af­fect­ed peo­ple and as­sist where nec­es­sary with tar­pau­lins, mat­tress­es and food sup­port.

Awong al­so ap­pealed to the Na­tion­al Com­mis­sion for Self Help Lim­it­ed to move quick­ly with grants and in­sti­tute a proac­tive pro­gramme for peo­ple with com­pro­mised roofs to get them re­paired.

“A proac­tive ap­proach would save the coun­try mil­lions of dol­lars in the long run. We would be work­ing around the clock to bring re­lief to those who suf­fered with the high winds,” Awong said.

Ch­agua­nas May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed mean­while said he had 41 re­ports of dam­aged roofs and 14 for falling trees, in­clud­ing trees that fell on hous­es and the high­way.

Shanti Kalpath in front of her home and business place at Maha Sabha Street on Tuesday.

SHASTRI BOODAN

Mo­hammed said the Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion (CBC) and its Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit were work­ing with the Fire Ser­vice and oth­er au­thor­i­ties to re­move fall­en trees and as­sist peo­ple with tar­pau­lins, ma­tress­es and food sup­port.

“This morn­ing I vis­it­ed the home of Beena Dol­liesingh, of En­deav­our, who is in her 70s. She nar­row­ly es­caped death when a tree fell on the roof over her bed­room. The CBC as­sist­ed in re­mov­ing the tree and cov­er­ing the roof with a tar­pau­lin. Per­sons need­ing help could call the DMU at 800-3222.”

In Fe­lic­i­ty, pop­u­lar bar own­er Shan­ti “Shan­ti Duck” Kalpath, 60, of Ma­ha Sab­ha Street, suf­fered a dam­aged roof. Kalpath said she heard a bang­ing and woosh­ing sound around mid­night and parts of her roof went with the high winds and fell on top of a pick-up owned by her neigh­bour Na­tal­ie Pakheera.

Pakheera said the gal­vanised sheets al­so fell on her pet dog and sev­ered her in­ter­net and elec­tric­i­ty con­nec­tions. She said as a re­sult, she al­so has no wa­ter since an elec­tri­cal pump was used to cir­cu­late wa­ter in the house.

In Cunu­pia, res­i­dents braved the rains and re­paired their own roof­ing.

At Sesame Street, Las Lo­mas, Af­fiya Nicholas and her fam­i­ly of five suf­fered a dam­aged roof.

She said no as­sis­tance was re­ceived from the CT­TRC up to mid­day and the fam­i­ly had to fund their own re­pairs.

Nicholas said they were caught by sur­prise when they heard loud crash­ing sounds around mid­night. Heavy af­ter­noon show­ers yes­ter­day al­so made re­pairs dif­fi­cult for res­i­dents.