The ef­fects of flood­ing are still caus­ing hav­oc for some res­i­dents of Beetham Gar­dens and El So­cor­ro South, and many are count­ing their loss­es.

Beetham Gar­dens res­i­dent Nal­adar Ed­wards, a moth­er of six, yes­ter­day said she has been a flood vic­tim sev­er­al times.

Flood­ing in Beetham Gar­dens seems un­com­mon, but they face it every time it rains, she said.

Nal­adar, a CEPEP work­er, told Guardian Me­dia all her ap­pli­ances and ba­by sup­plies were washed away in the flood­wa­ters.

Al­though the dis­as­ter hap­pened three days ago, Nal­adar re­port­ed re­ceiv­ing as­sis­tance from the San Juan Laven­tille Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion. How­ev­er, the mat­tress­es and food ham­pers weren’t enough for her and the six chil­dren.

The sin­gle moth­er, who us­es plac­ards across the coun­try ask­ing for help, said she pays a rent of $100 a month for an apart­ment and she has been plead­ing with the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) to re­lo­cate her, as she can no longer deal with the loss­es.

“I feel afraid and fright­ened some­times. I just walk to look for a job and once I see the weath­er chang­ing I rush home. This is mak­ing me feel emo­tion­al, I need help and when I am out work­ing, I al­ways have to pre­pare for if I will be flood­ed out again,” she said.

El Socorro resident Patrice Charles stands in her front door watching the rising flood waters outside her home at Para Singh Avenue, El Socorro South, yesterday.

KERWIN PIERRE

Ed­wards is one of the many Beetham res­i­dents fac­ing the re­al­i­ty of flood­ing.

For res­i­dents of El So­cor­ro South, flood­wa­ters filled the streets and many couldn’t ac­cess their homes.

Res­i­dents blame the pumps for the is­sue. The flood­wa­ter was along El So­cor­ro South and ac­cess to many homes was cut off, with on­ly high ve­hi­cles such as trucks and vans be­ing able to en­ter the com­mu­ni­ty.

The res­i­dents said since Oc­to­ber, they had been fac­ing this is­sue and it is chal­leng­ing for ail­ing peo­ple and those who need­ed to get ac­cess to any ser­vices.

Res­i­dent Pa­tri­cia Charles, who owns a par­lour in the area, told Guardian Me­dia, “It has been months since we have been fac­ing this and we need the pumps to work prop­er­ly, since the pumps have not been mov­ing the wa­ter ef­fec­tive­ly. Wa­ter is now com­ing through the doors in my house and I have rooms filled with wa­ter.”

In Oc­to­ber, Guardian Me­dia re­port­ed that a pump was pro­cured for the area but would be in­stalled in the dry sea­son.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, San Juan/Barataria MP Sad­dam Ho­sein said he was aware of the res­i­dents’ con­cerns and con­firmed that the pump is­sue was a re­al one and this is now af­fect­ing hun­dreds.

He added that he had raised the con­cerns of the res­i­dents in Par­lia­ment on more than one oc­ca­sion but no re­lief is in sight for the many af­fect­ed.

Guardian Me­dia called Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan but calls to his phone went unan­swered up to late yes­ter­day.

—Ot­to Car­ring­ton