Recent stormy weather which devastated north coast communities was another reminder of our incompetence and staggering neglectfulness.
Disaster always seems to catch this country on the back foot. It's tempting to think we are lulled into complacency because our disasters don't deliver a body count that will get us off our behinds. More likely, our flat-footed response to the ravages of nature is symptomatic of the diminished foresight found in every sphere of life in our little dystopia.
Residents of Matelot and Grande Riviere as well as Brasso Seco village suffered a tempest, the likes of which older heads in these communities say they have never seen.
Trees were uprooted, roads washed away and hillsides collapsed. Most accounts in the media portrayed apocalyptic scenes in villages where, at best, life is already a hard scrabble affair.
In Brasso, some residents struggled to cope as their shelter and food was wiped out by the deluge.
The one constant along the entire road leading to this village tucked away in the Northern Range is that even at its widest point, it wouldn't take much land-slippage to maroon residents. Villagers were hoping to get the roads cleared quickly so they could at least help themselves. What they got, in the first instance, was a visit from government workers who made it clear they don't get overtime to work the weekends.
So the Ministry of Works dispatched a bunch of clock-watchers who yabba dabba do just like Fred Flintstone when the work whistle blows on a Friday afternoon. Brasso folks, unfortunately, couldn't take a weekend break from their disaster.
Even as work limped along to restore severed links in these 'one way in, one way out' isolated communities in the Northern Range, residents of Matelot clamoured for basics like water, food and shelter.
Matelot village council president Anderson Zoe complained that relief supplies simply weren't coming in. Displaced residents thronged the community centre where they had to rely on a lone 4000 gallon water tank for their daily ablutions until better could be done.
The expected relief from their suffering by sea and air couldn't get to beleaguered villagers fast enough.
Outgoing chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation Terry Rondon appealed for establishment of an ODPM regional office in Toco so these coastal outposts could be more prepared when disaster strikes next.
Newly-minted Minister of Works Rohan Sinanan promised to hold consultations on the establishment of such an office because, well, there is nothing more Trini to the bone than interminable consultations without concrete action.
While Rondon has a point, there is something which could be mobilised far more quickly, and should have been a long time ago.
There are community centres across this country which don't seem to serve any particular purpose. The community centre at Matelot, under the guidance of the regional corporation and the ODPM, ought to have been outfitted as a relief shelter.
There should have been ready supplies of canned foods and dry goods such as peas and rice along with bottled water.
Ideally, one member of the village council should be appointed to take an inventory of these supplies periodically to ensure they are still fit for human consumption.
Instead of waiting for convoys of cots and mattresses which can't surmount landslides and destroyed roads, the community centre should store as many cots and blankets as the building can accommodate. Lamps and batteries should also be stored in a dry, cool place.
The ODPM should also consider supplying village councils in remote areas with chain saws which could be used to extricate residents trapped in their homes by fallen trees. This would also enable villagers to clear their roads of storm detritus.
Additionally, the ODPM, working along with the Ministry of Health, should provide emergency medical training for villagers of these remote communities. Training in CPR for drowning victims and treatment of lacerations would be an invaluable asset.
A first aid kit with something more substantial than a bottle of Dettol or aspirin would also be a useful resource, particularly as most regional health centres are as useless as community centres.
This model of citizen-response could be applied to any remote community. Residents should, at the very least, be given the basics to fend for themselves for a few days before the arrival of emergency crews.
As a nation we are unprepared for disasters, the implications are more acute in rural towns and villages.
We can't even withstand a prolonged afternoon downpour. Earthquake? Rubble will be our final resting place.
Regional corporations can't even be counted on for brainless tasks like routine drainage maintenance or sidewalk repair. Pre-emptive planning is asking too much of a blunt instrument.
The state needs to take a greater look disaster preparedness not simply response. All the mattresses in the world mean nothing if they can't be delivered to where they are most needed.
A proactive approach to the inevitability of disasters isn't high intellect, but common sense. The fact that we can't see that is even more terrifying than the disasters yet to come.