RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Left pen­ni­less in the pan­dem­ic, wid­ow Shal­isha Boodoo felt bereft when gale-force winds ripped off her roof, leav­ing all her pos­ses­sions drenched yes­ter­day.

But it was the kind­ness of her neigh­bours that kept her go­ing.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia, Boodoo praised her neigh­bours for pool­ing mon­ey to­geth­er and buy­ing tar­pau­lins for six fam­i­lies who were left with­out shel­ter when the blus­tery winds came dur­ing the ear­ly hours of yes­ter­day.

“My hus­band Banoo Ra­goo­bar died 16 years ago and my son Va­roon has not been work­ing since the pan­dem­ic, so we have no mon­ey to fix back this roof. I am very thank­ful for the vil­lagers who are help­ing me,” Boodoo said.

While her neigh­bours ham­mered away to se­cure fall­en sheets of gal­vanise from the road, Boodoo said, “Right now I am beg­ging for some help to get ma­te­r­i­al so I can fix back my roof.”

De­scrib­ing the or­deal, Boodoo said, “When the breeze start to blow I get fright­ened. I run out the house as the gal­vanise start to blow away.”

Crum­bled sheets of gal­vanise were scat­tered on the road­side and Boodoo said her neigh­bour In­dar Paras­ram, who owns a min­i­mart near­by, had promised some as­sis­tance.

Half a mile away, a child, who looked to be no more than 10 years old, stood on top of a roof mov­ing away shred­ded pieces of ply­wood. An­oth­er man stood on top of the roof while ca­ble wires hung from the roof.

Camilla Hugo shows tarpaulin covering her home after her roof was blown off by high winds associated with the passing tropical wave on Thursday night.

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

Near the  Phoenix Park Ear­ly Child­hood Cen­tre, Camil­la Hugo was al­so in dis­tress. Her en­tire roof had blown away and land­ed in her neigh­bour’s yard.

“It was a scary ex­pe­ri­ence. I nev­er ex­pe­ri­enced any­thing like this,” Hugo said.

She said she was for­tu­nate that there was lit­tle rain so she and her neigh­bours were able to se­cure valu­ables.

“I packed a few things and stayed by my neigh­bour for the rest of the night,” Hugo added.

She not­ed that the ex­pe­ri­ence had left her shak­en.

“I was asleep when I heard a pow­er­ful wind and then the roof went off. I didn’t know what to think. All I saw was the sky and I say Lord, am I re­al­ly see­ing the sky. I couldn’t be­lieve the roof went,” she re­called.

Any­one want­i­ng to as­sist Boodoo can call 331-2784.

A to­tal of 88 roofs were blown off and 33 trees top­pled by the force of the winds which lashed T&T as Trop­i­cal Wave 41 moved across the is­lands Thurs­day night in­to yes­ter­day, ac­cord­ing to the Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­istry.

Fall­en util­i­ty lines were re­port­ed at Guapo and a car re­port­ed­ly caught fire af­ter a light­ning strike in Cou­va. There were mul­ti­ple re­ports of fall­en trees in the Ari­ma re­gion, in ar­eas such as Tumpuna Road, Cal­vary and Mal­abar.

Galvanise is seen on the side of the road after it was blown off by high winds associated with the passing tropical wave at Phoenix Park Road, California.

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

In San Fer­nan­do, sev­er­al trees fell in Pleas­antville but the San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion’s En­gi­neer­ing Unit re­moved them be­fore mid­day. 

At Princes Town, T&TEC worked to re­store elec­tric­i­ty at Ku­mar Vil­lage, Williamsville, Pi­paro Main Road and Man­a­ham­bre Road, Princes Town, af­ter the winds knocked over util­i­ty poles. 

In the South­east­ern re­gions of Ma­yaro and Man­zanil­la, res­i­dents re­port­ed see­ing co­conut trees snap­ping as ter­ri­fy­ing winds swept the re­gion.

A to­tal of eight roofs at Sand­suck­er Road, La Sa­vanne, New Lands, Ec­cles Road, Grand La­goon, Pier­re­ville and Ker­na­han Vil­lage were de­stroyed. 

How­ev­er, un­like in Cen­tral Trinidad, res­i­dents of Ma­yaro did not get much time to se­cure valu­ables, as it con­tin­ued to rain for most of yes­ter­day. Co­cal/Mafek­ing coun­cil­lor Renelle Kissoon said re­pairs would start once the rains sub­sided. 

Mean­while, as heavy rains pum­melled the is­land late yes­ter­day, flash floods were seen at South­ern Main Road, Clax­ton Bay, near the Trinidad Ce­ment Lim­it­ed head­quar­ters.