SASCHA WIL­SON

Res­i­dents of R.E. Road, Los Iros, Erin, are still trau­ma­tised fol­low­ing yes­ter­day's tor­na­do that ripped through their com­mu­ni­ty, leav­ing a trail of dev­as­ta­tion.

At least 12 fam­i­lies had their prop­er­ties dam­aged, five of which were ripped in­to pieces.     

Res­i­dents told Guardian Me­dia that dis­as­ter struck around 3:30 pm yes­ter­day dur­ing heavy rain­fall. They re­called see­ing gal­vanise, tanks, fur­ni­ture and oth­er items swirling through the air, with some the items land­ing far away on land and in the sea.

And as the rain con­tin­ues to pound the com­mu­ni­ty to­day, res­i­dents said they need ur­gent help to re­pair their homes, and in some cas­es, re­build.

Soomanan Seenaths­ingh said she was do­ing laun­dry when the strong winds came.

"I did not take it on and when I see my son roof raise up, then that’s what I get pan­ic for, and the whole roof went away. My son was sleep­ing and the house, the DVD wet, the stereo wet, the bed wet, every­thing went up, every­thing de­stroy in the house,” she re­called.

A team from the Na­tion­al Com­mis­sion for Self Help Ltd, La Brea MP Steven Mc­Clashie and of­fi­cials from the Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit from the Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion vis­it­ed the res­i­dents to­day.

Self-Help Com­mis­sion CEO, El­roy Julien, said nev­er be­fore he has seen this lev­el of de­struc­tion.

"We are ready to pro­vide the lev­el of as­sis­tance this com­mu­ni­ty re­quires in or­der to get them back on their feet again,” he said.  “I am as­sur­ing that we will give the nec­es­sary as­sis­tance.”

He said dur­ing this week, the Com­mis­sion will be dis­trib­ut­ing the $25,000 emer­gency grant, not­ing that should more fund­ing be re­quired, the re­quest would be tak­en to the Board of Di­rec­tors for ap­proval.

Com­mu­ni­ty ac­tivist Vic­tor Roberts ex­pressed dis­ap­point­ment over the re­sponse of T&TEC and the po­lice. He told Guardian Me­dia the Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit vis­it­ed the area last night and pro­vid­ed mat­tress­es, ham­pers and tar­pau­lins.

Mean­while, there are re­ports of flash flood­ing in parts of Pa­lo Seco as the Met Of­fice has is­sued a Yel­low Lev­el Ad­verse Weath­er Bul­letin, par­tic­u­lar­ly for south Trinidad.