Scores of Woodland residents remained trapped in their homes for a second day yesterday after flood waters failed to recede in some places.Trying to bring some relief to them, their Member of Parliament, Stacy Roopnarine returned to the area yesterday donned in her tall rubber boots.Utilising a resident's boat she sailed across to various homes to meet with her constituents. With the assistance of Cepep workers, bags were filled with sand and placed at strategic places to prevent the water from entering people's homes.Some 30 houses at La Fortune Main Road were under water on Friday after the Oropouche River burst its banks.
In an interview Roopnarine said, "Last night we were out at 11 pm. The chairman of the Siparia Regional Corporation together with his team were with me, assessing the flood."She said they also sought assistance from the fire services to get to some of the residents. "Some people could not come out of their homes but no one wanted to be evacuated," she added. Roopnarine said the Office of Disaster and Preparedness Management was also providing relief to residents.She said residents had been given hampers and mattresses.Yesterday, Roopnarine, along with Local Government Minister Chandresh Sharma, toured the area."From yesterday to now the water has gone down, but not at the rate we had anticipated. There is still water on the roads and homes," she said.
Roopnarine said she had no choice but to close the Woodland flood gates because the tide was high again. As a result, she said, the Ministry of Works provided pumps to extract the water. She was expected to be joined by Minister of Works Minister Jack Warner yesterday evening.Omah Persad Binda, vice chairman of the St Patrick East Regional Agricultural Consultant Committee, said residents would have lost over $300,000 in household items and agricultural crops. Binda said, "These people have suffered a great loss. Most of them were trying to do some cleaning but the water was still high in some places.He said they would be able to prevent further flooding if they blocked off the river bank in two places where the water usually spills over.