Senior Reporter
otto.carrington@cnc3.co.tt
For more than a year residents of Sea Scape Apartments, John Street, Cocorite, have been living in fear that a landslide at the back of their apartments will come crashing down.
Since the incident, some of the apartment owners have been renting at other locations to ensure their safety. They said officials visited their compound immediately after the incident and again in June 2023 and since then, there has been no word on whether a retaining wall will be built or if the landslide, which now covers most of the back yard of the apartments, will be cleared.
One of the affected residents, Lorraine Farrell, said the landslide occurred just after 1 am on December 9 last year.
“The entire wall at the back came crashing down. Prior to that, we had been noticing signs, such as a white structure at the top showing outward cracking. During rains, a waterfall was created by the rains coming down to the back of the apartments, where the wall actually collapsed,” she said.
Farrell said residents of ground floor apartments moved out after the incident and many of them have not returned. Some occupants of first floor apartments have boarded up their windows and doors in case of a landslide.
“People who have paid off their mortgages or are currently paying a mortgage for here and renting outside are trying to get some type of feedback or word on what is happening with our situation. Despite all these reports from the Port-of-Spain City Corporation, the Ministry of Works and Transport and Local Government, we don’t have an idea,” Farrell said.
“It’s frightening. As soon as the dark clouds or those drops of rain start, I am out because reliving that sound that we heard that morning is scary. We literally thought the building was falling down—the vibration. I am not comfortable coming back here to live until some remedial work is done.”
Representative for the area, Diego Martin Central MP Symon De Nobriga and Port-of-Spain Mayor Chinua Alleyne could not be reached for comment on the situation.