Bamboo Settlement Number 1 residents finally received relief from the San Juan/Laventille Regional Corporation (SJLRC) yesterday.
In a joint venture, the SJLRC and T&T Coast Guard drove into the community in trucks and other high vehicles, giving residents whose homes were breached by flood waters care packages containing cleaning products and hygienic products.
Mere moments before they arrived, Guardian Media had visited the frustrated residents, who had complained they had not received any support from Government agencies. One resident, who did not want to be named, said, “Nobody come in here to help us. The only people that came here were other residents and private citizens. Up to now, we didn’t see our MP or councillor.”
Resident Andrea Dass added, “The whole house flood out really bad; the outside, the inside, you couldn’t sleep inside here - for five days we couldn’t sleep inside here, we had to sleep in the car.”
She said with no relief from any state agency, her boss and coworkers brought supplies and helped her clean up.
But after the corporation delivered the packages later on, she said, “It was good that they came. They came late but it’s good that they came. They gave us some cleaning supplies and some foodstuff.”
This was the general sentiment expressed by most of the residents who received relief supplies. However, some were not as pleased.
Allison Badall, who moved to Bamboo eight years ago to look after her uncle whose health was failing, said she never wants to experience the floods again.
“From a person who lived Rio Claro, born and grow Rio Claro, never see flood, only hear about it and to actually walk out your house, open the door so and all you seeing is stink water - that’s a different experience,” Badall said.
When the flood waters rose, Badall and other residents took refuge at the Bamboo Grove Presbyterian School, where they made a relief centre, cooking and distributing food to others afflicted.
Asked how she felt about seeing the corporation deliver aid, she said, “How does it feel seeing them now? You know how it feels to see them come in with a dingy when all the water gone? When we were looking for transport to get food down to Kanhai Street where the water was chest height…the army came in here on Sunday, they parked up the truck there in front of the school. They never went further than that and it had water in the back.”
She said they did not have the resources the army and other government agencies had access to but they still tried.
Senator Gerald Ramdeen, who was part of the impromptu relief centre effort and arrived as Guardian media was interviewing residents, said they had distributed over 1,000 meals a day to residents at Bamboo and environs.
“I want to say a special thank you to everybody, from the smallest to the largest. We’ve been able to get mattresses, foodstuff, sheets, equipment…they have people who’ve come forward and said after the water has gone down they will come on the weekend and do a clinic,” Ramdeen said.
