Min­is­ter of Works and In­fra­struc­ture Em­manuel George was ma­rooned in his home at St Lu­cien Road, Diego Mar­tin, and had to be re­moved by he­li­copter. Rag­ing flood wa­ters cut away La Hor­quette Val­ley Road. A col­lapsed bridge ma­rooned oth­er res­i­dents in the Glen­coe area. There were land­slides at La Es­tancia De­vel­op­ment and oth­er parts of Diego Mar­tin, and flood wa­ters around Crys­tal Stream ren­dered that sec­tion of the Diego Mar­tin High­way im­pass­able.

Holo­lo Bridge at San­ta Cruz was blocked by bam­boo, and the Mara­cas Road was dot­ted by land­slides. An el­der­ly woman was strand­ed on top of a wardrobe for sev­er­al hours. In­ter­viewed yes­ter­day, George said,?"We have de­ployed crew and equip­ment to clean up the ar­eas that have been most af­fect­ed. They have been sent to as­sist in clear­ing the de­bris. A lot of the roads were ren­dered vir­tu­al­ly im­pass­able."

In sur­vey­ing the ex­tent of the dam­age, George re­port­ed that the area around Al­coa had to be cleared. There was se­ri­ous dam­age in the La Hor­quette area and Abbe Pou­jade in Care­nage. He said La Hor­quette Road was most se­ri­ous­ly af­fect­ed. "We may have to take a se­ri­ous look at that road, be­cause peo­ple may not be able to get out. We want to see whether it can be made pass­able in the short­est pos­si­ble time." At Crys­tal Stream, George said, the con­crete bar­ri­ers had been shift­ed by the sheer strength of the flood wa­ters.

George al­so said the sit­u­a­tion was se­ri­ous at La Sei­va, Mar­aval, where the min­istry had de­ployed equip­ment and man­pow­er. "The area around Adam's Bagels is be­ing tend­ed to. Since ear­ly morn­ing, we have been work­ing on it." He al­so not­ed there were sev­er­al land­slides along the North Coast Road head­ing to Mara­cas. "We have sent work­men to clear the road." At San­ta Cruz, he said, the Holo­lo Bridge was blocked by bam­boo. "We are clean­ing it up. Just af­ter lunch, equip­ment and work­men were sent there.

"In the La Canoa area, the San Juan Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion was ad­dress­ing the flood­ing. They have de­ployed men and equip­ment on the ground. They are do­ing a lot of work in that area." And in the Blan­chisseuse and Paria/Ari­ma ar­eas, George said the land­slides were be­ing cleared by a con­trac­tor.