The Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment has an­nounced their co­or­di­na­tion with the Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Units (DMUs) of the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, the To­ba­go Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (TEMA), the Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Red Cross (TTRCS), NGOs and oth­er first re­sponse agen­cies.

 They fur­ther ad­vise every­one to be vig­i­lant as weath­er and river­ine flood­ing con­tin­ue to im­pact Trinidad and To­ba­go. De­tails fol­low in this press re­lease…

In light of the on­go­ing ad­verse weath­er con­di­tions as a re­sult of a trop­i­cal wave 91L, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice (TTMS) has el­e­vat­ed its alert to a River­ine Flood Alert #2 - Or­ange Lev­el. The Ad­verse Weath­er Alert #3 - Yel­low Lev­el re­mains in ef­fect un­til Fri­day 07 Oc­to­ber, 2022 at 12:00 PM, un­less ex­tend­ed.

The TTMS has ad­vised that con­tin­u­ous rain­fall overnight has pushed ma­jor wa­ter­cours­es to crit­i­cal thresh­olds and some may be close to over­spilling or they are al­ready do­ing so. Pe­ri­ods of heavy show­ers, rain and thun­der­storms are still ex­pect­ed. This ad­di­tion­al rain­fall, in com­bi­na­tion with spring tides, can keep the riv­er lev­els el­e­vat­ed and there now ex­ists a se­vere risk to pub­lic safe­ty, liveli­hood and prop­er­ty, es­pe­cial­ly in low-ly­ing com­mu­ni­ties. Small­er wa­ter­cours­es in both Trinidad and To­ba­go are al­so el­e­vat­ed and can burst their banks with ad­di­tion­al rain­fall.

Per­sons re­sid­ing, tra­vers­ing or work­ing in flood-prone ar­eas, es­pe­cial­ly along ma­jor wa­ter­cours­es of Trinidad, in­clud­ing the North Oropouche, Ca­roni and South Oropouche and wa­ter­cours­es in To­ba­go, in­clud­ing the Crooks and Dar­rell Spring Rivers are urged to be ex­tra vig­i­lant and to take the nec­es­sary steps to pre­serve life and prop­er­ty. Be alert for ris­ing riv­er lev­els and pos­si­ble over-spill. Do not take un­nec­es­sary risks. Avoid in­ten­tion­al­ly walk­ing or dri­ving through flood wa­ters.

The Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment is co­or­di­nat­ing with the Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Units (DMUs) of the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, the To­ba­go Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (TEMA), the Pro­tec­tive Ser­vices, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Red Cross (TTRCS), NGOs and oth­er first re­sponse agen­cies. The Trinidad and

To­ba­go De­fence Force re­mains on high alert. These agen­cies have ac­ti­vat­ed their emer­gency plans and con­tin­ue to co­or­di­nate re­sponse mech­a­nisms in im­pact­ed re­gions.

Cit­i­zens should take the fol­low­ing pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures in light of the on­go­ing Ad­verse Weath­er and River­ine Flood Alert- Or­ange Lev­el:

Know and re­duce your risks

1. First­ly, stay in­formed by look­ing out for alerts, warn­ings, and pub­lic safe­ty in­for­ma­tion from of­fi­cial sources like the ODPM, TTMS and T&TEC, Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment be­fore, dur­ing, and af­ter emer­gen­cies.

2. En­sure that you have the nec­es­sary con­tact in­for­ma­tion writ­ten, se­cured and read­i­ly avail­able to your fam­i­ly mem­bers or co-work­ers.

3. Do not walk, play or dri­ve through flood wa­ters of un­known depth and cur­rent.

4. Be cau­tious when walk­ing /dri­ving along hill­sides or land­slide-prone ar­eas.

Make/ Re­view Emer­gency/Busi­ness Con­ti­nu­ity Plan

5. Re­view and up­date your fam­i­ly emer­gency plans. If you live or work in an area that is prone to flood­ing, please ad­e­quate­ly pre­pare for the pos­si­bil­i­ty of an evac­u­a­tion.

6. Iden­ti­fy eas­i­ly ac­ces­si­ble and safe lo­ca­tions to meet in the event that you are sep­a­rat­ed. Pre­pare for the spe­cif­ic needs of your fam­i­ly, which may dif­fer if you have pets, peo­ple with spe­cial needs, or nowhere to go.

7. En­sure that you se­cure your pets and live­stock.

Pre­pare Emer­gency Re­sources

8. As­sem­ble an emer­gency kit with enough es­sen­tial items to last you and your fam­i­ly 3-7 days. Al­so, pre­pare a Grab and Go Bag/Kit for each fam­i­ly mem­ber, with es­sen­tial items in the event you need to evac­u­ate.

9. In light of COVID-19 guide­lines, in­clude ex­tra face masks, gloves and hand sani­tis­ers in your emer­gency kits or grab and go bags.

10. En­sure that all your im­por­tant doc­u­ments are stored in a wa­ter­proof bag.

Act and As­sist Oth­ers

11. Pre­pare for flood­ing by el­e­vat­ing items above ground lev­el and un­plug­ging sen­si­tive elec­tron­ic equip­ment.

12. If you are in an area where flood risk is high, keep sand­bags on hand. These can be ac­quired from your lo­cal mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tion.

13. Con­sid­er de­vel­op­ing a bud­dy sys­tem with neigh­bours, friends, and rel­a­tives to make sure that some­one is avail­able to care for or evac­u­ate mem­bers of your house­hold if you are un­able to do so.

In case per­sons are im­pact­ed by ad­verse weath­er, im­me­di­ate­ly con­tact the Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions’ Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Units and the To­ba­go Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (TEMA) via the rel­e­vant hot­line num­bers be­low: