Huge ten-foot waves battered the shoreline in Toco, Matelot and other parts of the northeast coast yesterday, damaging nets and boats.?
Fishermen spent yesterday afternoon frantically securing their pirogues. They said they had not seen such big waves in about ten years.
Residents and schoolchildren stood fearfully watching what they call in the village "ground sea", the sea coming into the land.
Matelot schoolteacher, Bernelle Shears, said the waves actually reached into a park which was a part of the Matelot Community?College on the Paria Main?Road and destroyed the school's garden.
"The waves are huge, almost twice the normal size and we have not seen this here in a long time.
"There is no beach in sight anymore. The waves are coming inland," she added.
Shears said the waves reached into the yard of Alfred Baldeosingh who lives on the river bank.
"The sea entered the river and it overflowed into his yard," she added.
Shears said the rough seas began Monday night and by Tuesday afternoon had become worse.
While fishermen were desperately trying to remove their boats from the rough seas, happy surfers were heading up to Toco to ride the waves.
"They are good waves for surfers," vice-president of the Surfing Association of T&T (SATT), Keith Lewis, said. "Nothing out of the ordinary for us."