We need help!

Wood­land res­i­dents plan to evac­u­ate flood zones

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As the rains held up and flood wa­ters re­ced­ed, Debe res­i­dents are call­ing for help to pump out sev­er­al feet of flood wa­ters from around their prop­er­ties and in­side their homes.

At Mol­ly Street, Debe Fa­ree­da Moral­ly looked at her flood­ed home in dis­tress.

She said every­thing in the house was soaked and she was dread­ing to see what the con­di­tion was in­side.

“You could see how every­thing in the wa­ter? Whole day we tried to con­tain this wa­ter but in the night when the high tide came, that was it, the wa­ter start­ed to gush in­side,” she re­called.

She added: “ It is a clean­ing-up sit­u­a­tion now. It is a hard time for us and we re­al­ly need help. If I can get some­one to pump out the wa­ter from in­side the house, it will be a great help.”

Moral­ly said the wa­ters start­ed to rise quick­ly at 7 pm.

“ I got to lift the fridge and stove but that was it,” she said.

Mean­while, dozens of peo­ple went to the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion to col­lect and dis­trib­ute sand­bags.

Woodland residents remove their livestock from the fields to save them from drowning. Image by Kristian De Silva

At Debe Trace and Ra­hamut Trace, sand banks were built to stop the riv­er from cross­ing the banks. How­ev­er, this was fu­tile as the riv­er bank was breached for hun­dreds of feet. No one was able to come out of the area to go to work or school.

At La For­tune, Wood­land, Mar­vin Bridge­mo­han said res­i­dents were al­so tak­ing pre­cau­tions as they an­tic­i­pat­ed fur­ther rain­fall.

Marvin Bridgemohan stands in his front yard as flood waters rise rapidly in Woodland. Image by Kristian De Silva

“We will have to evac­u­ate this area be­cause some­times this wa­ter stays here for a week. We have to re­move the live­stock to Mur­ray Trace and try to raise every­thing off the ground but if the wa­ter con­tin­ues to rise, we can­not stay here,” Bridge­mo­han said.

He said his chick­ens and oth­er live­stock will al­so have to be re­moved from the flood­ed zones.

“I have to hold them, put them in bags and then take them to Mur­ray Trace but I don’t know if I will be able to pass on the road be­cause the wa­ter is al­ready high,” he said.

He added: “The amount of wa­ter we get­ting is not easy at all. I blocked up the front and back door with bricks but now I have to raise it high­erI am go­ing to try us­ing these bags of ce­ment to block it,” he added.

Chair­man of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Dr Allen Sam­my said they were on stand­by to as­sist res­i­dents who are trapped by the ris­ing floods. He said: “Now is low tide so in some parts of Pe­nal the wa­ter went down a lit­tle but lat­er in the day we do not know what will hap­pen,” he added.

Guardian Me­dia will bring you more as this sto­ry un­folds.