RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Flood­wa­ters con­tin­ue to rise in Pe­nal and Bar­rack­pore af­ter sev­er­al hours of rain. Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that in An­tilles Trace, Siparia, flood­wa­ters have reached two feet.

Pres­i­dent of the Wood­land Flood Ac­tion Group, Kevin Hard­uar, told Guardian Me­dia that res­i­dents should stay alert. He said teams were sent to mon­i­tor the Wood­land flood­gates to reg­u­late tidal flows as flood­wa­ters rise.

Wood­land res­i­dents al­so are prepar­ing for flood­ing, mov­ing valu­ables to high­er ground as wa­ter from high­er ar­eas in Moru­ga and Bar­rack­pore drains in­to the Low­er South Oropouche Drainage Basin.

Chair­man of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion, Gow­tam Ma­haraj, told Guardian Me­dia that Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit teams be­gan ground checks at 5 am to­day.

He not­ed a quick runoff of flood­wa­ters but warned that with on­go­ing rain­fall, flood­ing would con­tin­ue, es­pe­cial­ly with the high tide.

Oth­er flood­ed ar­eas in­clude parts of Pe­nal Rock Road and Clarke Road.

The T&T Met Ser­vice has is­sued a Yel­low Lev­el Lo­calised Flood Alert, which re­mains in ef­fect for much of to­day.

"Pe­ri­ods of rain with vary­ing in­ten­si­ties and iso­lat­ed heavy show­ers or thun­der­storms are ex­pect­ed to­day due to the pres­ence of the ITCZ," the Met Ser­vice said in a state­ment.

It stat­ed: “Im­pacts in­clude lo­calised flood­ing and pond­ing, es­pe­cial­ly in low-ly­ing and flood-prone ar­eas, po­ten­tial traf­fic de­lays due to wa­ter ac­cu­mu­la­tion on road­ways, and re­duced vis­i­bil­i­ty dur­ing heavy down­pours, which may af­fect dri­ving con­di­tions.”