SHAS­TRI BOODAN

Veg­etable prices just may in­crease should a trop­i­cal storm hit Trinidad and To­ba­go, is one ma­jor con­cern raised by ven­dors at the Cou­va Mar­ket.

Speak­ing to­day with Guardian Me­dia, mar­ket ven­dors Shas­tri Har­richa­ran and Par­bat­tie Ramkhele­wan, said con­sumers start­ed flock­ing to the mar­ket very ear­ly to stock up on veg­eta­bles.

Har­richa­ran ad­mit­ted the whole­sale prices of some items al­ready had in­creased with­in the past two weeks. He said “

“If there are floods that af­fect where farm­ers pro­duce, there would be a short­age and prices would in­crease,” he warned.  “Some pro­duce, such as cab­bages and toma­toes, are im­port­ed; but most veg­eta­bles are grown lo­cal­ly.”

Con­sumer Na­dia Maraj, told Guardian Me­dia: “Prices are al­ready high, so I don’t know how some peo­ple would man­age if heavy rains caused dam­age to crops.”

White Candles sold out quickly. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

Most of the ma­jor gro­ceries in Cen­tral Trinidad had long lines to­day, and con­sumers in­stead opt­ed to shop at some of the small­er com­mu­ni­ty su­per­mar­kets.

At Sam’s Su­per­savers on the Ex­change Road, staff said peo­ple were stock­ing up on bread, bot­tled wa­ter, salt­ed bis­cuits, canned goods and can­dles. All of the white can­dles and bread was sold out and con­sumers had a choice of black, yel­low or green can­dles.

Aziz Mohammed stocks up on Crix salted biscuits and sardines. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

Az­iz Mo­hammed, a res­i­dent of Roys­to­nia, said he was look­ing for items such as sar­dines, crix and peanut but­ter, since these items were easy to pre­pare and re­quire no cook­ing.

Anisa Bal­roop said she too was look­ing for canned goods and snacks.

“The big­ger gro­ceries are jam-packed, and we have to take what we get here,” she said.

Alana Mar­tin ex­pressed dis­ap­point­ment that bread was sold-out.

“I am not feel­ing to mix flour,” Mar­tin ad­mit­ted, not­ing that she was stock­ing up on snacks and oth­er small­er items.

Rattan Ramroop and his granddaughter Meera Ramsingh purchase bread at Chin’s Supermarket, Perseverance, Couva. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

Hard­ware deal­ers said sales were nor­mal and there was no rush for items. One deal­er told us peo­ple are not will­ing to spend up­wards of $300 for a sheet of ply­wood to board up win­dows. He said the cost of con­struc­tion lum­ber, in­clud­ing lo­cal lum­ber, had sky­rock­et­ed dur­ing the pan­dem­ic mak­ing it im­pos­si­ble for many peo­ple to ex­pend funds to board up their win­dows.

“Many peo­ple, in­clud­ing pub­lic sec­tor work­ers, have not got­ten their salaries, so many are cash strapped at this time… This storm come be­fore mmonth-end,” Rogers Gopaul, a res­i­dent of Mc Bean, said.

At Car­li Bay, fish­er­men had to wait un­til the tide was high to take out their boats.

Fish­er­man Amir Mo­hammed said the boats would have to be an­chored off­shore, as ves­sels can­not be dry­docked on­shore. He ex­plained that sud­den swells or high waves may knock around the boats and dam­age them if they are stored on­shore.

Fisherman Amir Mohammed mends nets at Carli Bay as he awaits high tide to take his boat offshore to anchor during the storm. [Image by SHASTRI BOODAN]

Mean­while, Chair­man of the Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion Cor­po­ra­tion (CT­TRC), Hen­ry Awong told Guardian Me­dia that the CT­TRC has sand stored at var­i­ous points of the re­gion. He said they be­gan their emer­gency mea­sures for the rainy sea­sons since mid-June.

Awong said he had called on burgess­es to se­cure their roofs with hur­ri­cane straps.

“In the event per­sons were un­able to se­cure their roofs, the CT­TRC has stocked up on tar­pau­lins and mat­tress­es,” he said. 

He al­so re­port­ed that chain­saws, wa­ter pumps and heavy equip­ment—along with the CT­TRC’s dis­trict re­sponse teams—are in place.

Ch­agua­nas May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed told Guardian Me­dia the Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion moved to en­sure sand­bags would be at coun­cil­lors’ of­fices and at the CBC’s of­fices, as well.

May­or Mo­hammed said the CBC was clear­ing drains at Ca­roni Sa­van­nah Road and Cunu­pia that are prone to flood­ing. He al­so re­port­ed that Bor­ough’s Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit has tar­pau­lins and mat­tress­es in stock.

“I am ask­ing burgess­es to be pro-ac­tive and be cau­tious. Do not ven­ture out­side and in­to flood­wa­ters,” the may­or ap­pealed to burgess­es.

May­or Mo­hammed said the CBC was will­ing to as­sist oth­er re­gion­al bod­ies.