T&T cannot escape forever and the ODPM and other authorities need to step up their preparations, communications and response times and capabilities and take these threats more seriously. Events like last week's flooding should be useful rehearsals for handling major catastrophes where they roll out practised and efficient responses, instead of being left floundering and seemingly caught off guard.
As floods ripped through east Trinidad last week, the troubling images of houses, roadways and agricultural fields submerged under feet of water were met by continuing complaints about the response capacity of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM).
Landslides at Cumaca, flooding at Matelot, Matura, Valencia and Cumana were met by poor response times from the Disaster Management Unit.
"The flood was disastrous," said chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporatio Terry Rondon. Of the DMU, he noted, "Some of them could not get to Toco in time to render assistance to the people up there because of the distance, given the bad weather. We need a DMU in Toco."
Among his woes, Mr Rondon complained of sandbags for which there was no sand, and which therefore proved useless to control the rapid spread of flood waters.
As recently as July, ODPM CEO Dr Stephen Ramroop claimed that the agencies operating under his stewardship were better prepared this year.
Yet even after the widespread and major floods experienced in areas such as Diego Martin in recent years, the OPDM and its first responders are not performing to the satisfaction of those who need help.
There is still confusion about the role of the ODPM, whether people should go to shelters or not, and it appears to have taken days for assistance to reach areas such as Kernaham Village.
In addition, last week and this week, infrastructure that would have allowed excess water to run off the Mayaro/Manzanilla main road and the Solomon Hochoy Highway apparently failed due to poor maintenance. The Mayaro/Manzanilla road took a particularly hard hit from flood waters, effectively collapsing and leaving that critical artery for traffic into and out of Mayaro severed for the immediate future. Minister of Works and Infrastructure Dr Suruj Rambachan was on the scene quickly, promising rapid remedial work, but the roadway, a key connector for the oil industries operating on the east coast, will take some time to restore.
As terrible as these incidents are in themselves, they also serve as the loudest possible warning of what might befall this country if, for once, a hurricane or tropical storm failed to swerve northwards away from T&T. What would happen if the disasters that struck east Trinidad last week were amplified across both islands, and the hiccups and shortcomings in disaster response and oversights in infrastructure maintenance were multiplied a hundredfold?
Nobody would wish for such a scenario, but it is the job of the ODPM to prepare for it and on the evidence of the problems a part of this country experienced last week, T&T remains unready for the consequences of a sustained incident of bad weather.
As California suffers a three-year drought, there are predictions that the UK expects its wettest, stormiest winter in 100 years, and Canada and the northern US, already under snow, brace for the polar vortex, the effects of climate changes are becoming apparent.
T&T cannot escape forever and the ODPM and other authorities need to step up
their preparation, communications and response times and capabilities and take these threats more seriously.
Events like last week's flooding should be useful rehearsals for handling major catastrophes where they roll out practised and efficient responses, instead of being left floundering and seemingly caught off guard.