The Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (ODPM) has re­ceived re­ports of flood­ing from both res­i­dents and re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions in sev­er­al parts of north and south-west Trinidad, as the coun­try re­mains un­der an Ad­verse Weath­er Alert – YEL­LOW LEV­EL, which was ac­ti­vat­ed at 5:00 am to­day.

In ad­di­tion, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice (TTMS) is urg­ing per­sons re­sid­ing near wa­ter cours­es to con­tin­ue mon­i­tor­ing their lev­els, as small­er rivers cours­es “have been over­whelmed”.

“In­tense thun­der­storms have been ob­served over both is­lands this morn­ing caus­ing in­stances of street/flash flood­ing,” it said in its lat­est ad­vi­so­ry. “Small­er riv­er cours­es have been over­whelmed and lo­cal­ized flood­ing can be ex­pect­ed in sur­round­ing ar­eas.”

The Met Ser­vice as­sures, how­ev­er, the ma­jor wa­ter­cours­es re­main con­tained at this time.

“The ax­is of the Trop­i­cal Wave is ex­pect­ed to pass this morn­ing and ad­di­tion­al rain­fall in ex­cess of 25 mm can be ex­pect­ed,” fore­cast­ers say.

Street/flash flood­ing and lo­cal­ized pond­ing are al­so like­ly in heavy down­pours, and the Met Ser­vice is urg­ing the pub­lic to avoid wad­ing or dri­ving through flood wa­ters.

In ad­di­tion, be­cause gusty winds in ex­cess of 55 km/hr may be ex­pe­ri­enced, es­pe­cial­ly in the vicin­i­ty of show­ers/thun­der­storms to­day, the Met Ser­vice ad­vis­es the pub­lic to se­cure loose out­door items and live­stock.

Seas can be­come ag­i­tat­ed at times in shel­tered ar­eas, so coastal and ma­rine in­ter­ests are asked to take all nec­es­sary pre­cau­tions.

Rising flood waters in Coconut Drive in San Fernando, on Friday 15 July 2022. (Image by RISHI RAGOONATH)

Mean­while, the ODPM, in its “Sum­ma­ry of In­ci­dents Re­port­ed”, says as at 9:30 this morn­ing, it had not re­ceived ad­verse-weath­er-re­lat­ed in­ci­dents com­ing from East Trinidad, South and Cen­tral Trinidad, and To­ba­go. 

How­ev­er, the fol­low­ing re­ports were ob­tained from oth­er parts of the coun­try:

■   North-West Trinidad — Res­i­dents re­ports… One re­port of street flood­ing on the Diego Mar­tin Main road, be­tween Rich Plain and St Lu­cien Roads; one re­port of street flood­ing on the Crys­tal Stream Road, Diego Mar­tin; and one re­port of street flood­ing at Cizan Trace, Blue Basin, Diego Mar­tin.

■   North-Cen­tral Trinidad — CT­TRC DMU re­ports… One re­port of street flood­ing at Es­mer­al­da Junc­tion, Guaracara Road, Tabaquite; one re­port of street flood­ing at Las Lo­mas No.1; one re­port of street flood­ing at Hous­sa Trace, Gas­par­il­lo; and one re­port of street flood­ing at Le Blanc Road, Todds Road.

■   South-West Trinidad — Res­i­dents re­ports… One re­port of res­i­den­tial flood­ing at Lengua Rd, Princess Town; and one re­port of res­i­den­tial flood­ing at Pic­ton Street Ext. Pan Dri­ve, Di­a­mond Street, San Fer­nan­do.

Both the Met Ser­vice and the ODPM are en­cour­ag­ing every­one to con­tin­ue mon­i­tor­ing weath­er con­di­tions and of­fi­cial up­dates from the of­fi­cial sources:

■   Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice (TTMS), at www.metof­fice.gov.tt/  

■   The Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (ODPM), at www.odpm.gov.tt