To­day (Thurs­day), stu­dents sit­ting CSEC and CAPE ex­ams are be­ing as­sured that every ef­fort is be­ing made to get them safe­ly to their ex­am­i­na­tion cen­tres, de­spite se­vere flood­ing across sev­er­al parts of Trinidad.

Sec­ondary schools will not be used as emer­gency shel­ters, the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment con­firmed, to en­sure ex­ams can con­tin­ue with­out in­ter­rup­tion.

“We are work­ing close­ly with the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to en­sure every child has the op­por­tu­ni­ty to write their ex­ams, re­gard­less of weath­er con­di­tions,” said Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen. “Par­ents with con­cerns should reach out to their re­spec­tive DMU (Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit) to re­quest sup­port. Whether by truck or boat, we will get your chil­dren to their ex­ams.”

To sup­port this, the Min­istry has re­quest­ed help from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Reg­i­ment, de­ploy­ing troop car­ri­ers in the Pe­nal/Debe re­gion. Dinghies and trucks have al­so been sent to key ar­eas: three in Pe­nal/Debe, three in San­gre Grande, and two in Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co.

Mean­while, mul­ti­ple Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions have ac­ti­vat­ed high-alert pro­to­cols fol­low­ing days of heavy rain­fall. The worst-hit ar­eas so far in­clude South Oropouche, Ca­paro Val­ley, and the Ca­roni Riv­er Basin — all of which have seen street-lev­el and res­i­den­tial flood­ing. The Ca­roni Riv­er has sig­nif­i­cant­ly over­flowed, and re­ports from the east al­so con­firm ris­ing wa­ters around the Manuel Con­go Riv­er.

“This is the first time in quite a while that we’ve had such in­tense river­ine flood­ing, es­pe­cial­ly in the Ca­roni Riv­er Basin and fur­ther east, around the Manuel Con­go Riv­er,” Ameen said. “Res­i­dents in these ar­eas should re­main cau­tious and se­cure their homes with sand­bags.”

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice has raised the River­ine Flood Alert to Or­ange Lev­el, warn­ing of con­tin­ued risk in low-ly­ing and flood-prone ar­eas.

Pri­ma­ry schools and com­mu­ni­ty cen­tres are be­ing pre­pared as shel­ters for dis­placed res­i­dents. The Min­istry is urg­ing cit­i­zens to mon­i­tor of­fi­cial up­dates and avoid un­nec­es­sary trav­el where roads re­main sub­merged or im­pass­able.

“Our teams are on the ground, dis­trib­ut­ing sand­bags, mon­i­tor­ing riv­er lev­els, and as­sist­ing fam­i­lies im­pact­ed by flood­ing,” Ameen said.