Malis­sa Lara

Ba­lan­dra bridge has col­lapsed, caus­ing dis­tress to nine com­mu­ni­ties along Trinidad's north-east coast. The bridge–which pro­vides ac­cess to ar­eas such as To­co, Ram­panal­gas and far-flung Matelot–col­lapsed around 12.45 pm yes­ter­day. Ter­ry Ron­don, coun­cil­lor for the area, said the old bridge col­lapsed and the crane which was be­ing dri­ven on it fell in­to the riv­er. The crane was be­ing op­er­at­ed on the new bridge near­by. No one was in­jured, how­ev­er res­i­dents and vis­i­tors were forced to aban­don their ve­hi­cles on ei­ther side of the bridge and make the trek in mud, along loose, wood­en planks used as a makeshift bridge.

Most of them wore for­lorn ex­pres­sions as they ex­pressed con­cerns about the se­cu­ri­ty of their ve­hi­cles. Last Au­gust, the Ca­roni Bai­ley bridge col­lapsed, caus­ing the death of one man and in­jur­ing oth­ers. Yes­ter­day moth­ers wrapped their chil­dren in their arms and walked cau­tious­ly over the makeshift bridge in the rain. Sookdeo Nar­ine, of Curepe, and Nigel Umaid, of Ch­agua­nas, were on an ex­cur­sion in To­co with 13 oth­er peo­ple. They all crossed over the bro­ken bridge with no more than the clothes on their backs, com­plain­ing that they had to call for trans­porta­tion.

"What about our un­at­tend­ed ve­hi­cles?" Nar­ine asked.

Young men from the area came out to as­sist the women, es­pe­cial­ly the el­der­ly, who ex­pe­ri­enced dif­fi­cul­ty mak­ing their way across the makeshift bridge. Those who were on the beach­es and bathing in the rivers cut short their ac­tiv­i­ties on hear­ing the news, but still found them­selves strand­ed at the bro­ken bridge. Both In­dra Sinanan Ojah-Ma­haraj, MP for To­co/San­gre Grande, and Ron­don were work­ing fever­ish­ly to get peo­ple to their homes. Around 3 pm, Ron­don said he was told that en­gi­neers were on their way with a Bai­ley bridge. How­ev­er, at 6.20 pm, the bridge had not yet ar­rived. Max­is were on ei­ther side of the road, wait­ing to shut­tle peo­ple to their homes.