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Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Heavy rainfall causes severe flooding in South 

by

1635 days ago
20200904
A field flooded after heavy rainfall yesterday located at Warren Rd, Bejucal.

A field flooded after heavy rainfall yesterday located at Warren Rd, Bejucal.

Mariela Bruzual

 

Al­ready strug­gling from the eco­nom­ic im­pacts of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, res­i­dents of Gas­par­il­lo lost most of their be­long­ings yes­ter­day as heavy rain caused flood­wa­ters to rise as high as five feet in some ar­eas.

Parts of Arou­ca, Lopinot and Ch­agua­nas were al­so af­fect­ed by street and flash flood­ing.

Guardian Me­dia spoke to Gas­par­il­lo res­i­dent, Videsh Gopaul who said al­though those who live on Gopaul Av­enue have had to con­tend with flood­wa­ters in the past, yes­ter­day’s event was by far the worst.

“My fam­i­ly in the back are com­plete­ly flood­ed out, I just spoke to them and they have lost every­thing, they have al­most five feet of wa­ter in their house. They lost fridges, stoves, books, wash­ing ma­chines, com­put­ers, beds, wardrobes, so­fa sets, every­thing is lost,” Gopaul said.

Vehicles drive through flood waters along the Solomon Hochoy Highway near the Couva overpass yesterday.

Vehicles drive through flood waters along the Solomon Hochoy Highway near the Couva overpass yesterday.

Rishard Khan

Gopaul said the flood­ing be­gan af­ter just one hour of heavy rain­fall and left some homes un­der as much as five feet of wa­ter.

He es­ti­mat­ed the dam­age to his rel­a­tives home to about $100,000.

He said for years, the res­i­dents have been clam­our­ing about poor drainage in the area.

“It had a guy was build­ing a house low­er down the road and he bridge the gap and the wa­ter can’t pass as it used to, that is why we have this back up present­ly, a lit­tle above the knee is where it is nor­mal­ly about three feet­—now it is waist height—if I go in it, it will reach me by my chest right now,” he said.

MP for Tabaquite, Ani­ta Haynes, vis­it­ed the res­i­dents. She said she had re­ceived mul­ti­ple re­ports of homes be­ing in­un­dat­ed with flood­wa­ters.

She too blamed the flood­ing on poor drainage.

Flooding at Bhagwansingh Trace, off Caratal Road, Gasparillo.

Flooding at Bhagwansingh Trace, off Caratal Road, Gasparillo.

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“A lot of peo­ple have lost a num­ber of things—things are re­al­ly hard for some fam­i­lies, deal­ing with COVID-19, job­less­ness, try­ing to get their chil­dren start­ed with vir­tu­al learn­ing,” she said.

She said the calls to dredge rivers in the area were ig­nored and the time to do so has now passed.

“We are now well in­to the rainy sea­son, prep­ping for the hur­ri­cane sea­son so that ship has sailed in terms of clear­ing the wa­ter­cours­es and mak­ing sure the dredg­ing of riv­er banks is done.”

Haynes said this in­ci­dent will test the re­sponse of new­ly-in­stalled So­cial De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Don­na Cox.

“I heard the new­ly in­stalled Min­is­ter of So­cial De­vel­op­ment spoke about get­ting aid and as­sis­tance to peo­ple in need in a faster man­ner, we are go­ing to see if they will be true to their word.”

Flooding in Gasparillo

Flooding in Gasparillo

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Haynes said she was told in some ar­eas that res­i­dents were still await­ing flood grants from two years ago.

“So they are fac­ing a prob­lem that is re­cur­ring and every time they ap­ply for grants, they are not get­ting the grants.”

ABOVE AND BELOW: Flooding in Gasparillo yesterday.

ABOVE AND BELOW: Flooding in Gasparillo yesterday.

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