Hours after south Trinidad became inundated with flooding, central and northern Trinidad experienced torrential rainfall yesterday afternoon, and north-moving showers and thunderstorms intensified across the island.
Upwards of three inches (75 millimetres) of rainfall led to street and flash flooding across the East-West Corridor, between Trincity and Port-of-Spain, affecting both the Eastern Main Road and the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway.
Traffic was brought to a standstill at Orange Grove, Trincity, as all eastbound lanes of the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway flooded by mid-afternoon. The traffic backup continued into Port-of-Spain as floods affected the shoulder and left-most lane of the highway near Courts Megastore in El Socorro.
Flooding was reported in Laventille, San Juan, Curepe, El Socorro, Aranguez, Bamboo #3, Tacarigua, Macoya, El Dorado, St Augustine, Trincity and San Juan.
Across central Trinidad, heavy rainfall occurred throughout the afternoon, causing street and flash flooding in parts of Chaguanas, including on the Chaguanas Main Road and Connector Road, which remained under water into the late evening.
The Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service (TTMS) said the rainfall and flooding was due to “low-level moisture and convergence,” which prompted forecasters to issue Adverse Weather Alerts for the country yesterday morning and another during the afternoon.
The first Adverse Weather Alert came at 8.41 am.
The TTMS was initially monitoring “a band of convergence to the east of Tobago”, which was “expected to be enhanced by favourable atmospheric features and generate broad areas of moderate to heavy showers as well as occasional thunderstorms.”
The band of convergence materialised, but favourable conditions led to showers and thunderstorms developing across the remainder of Trinidad by midday. At 12.19 pm, the TTMS expanded the alert to encompass all of Trinidad and minutes later, torrential downpours began across the northern half of the island.
While no Riverine Flood Alert was issued for the South Oropouche River, as its tributaries overtopped yesterday, flooding low-lying areas of Barrackpore, Penal and Debe, the TTMS advised the public to “secure items that may be affected by flood waters and do not venture into flood waters” in the second Adverse Weather Alert.
