As the breached New Cut Channel flowed through the Woodland plains, residents took a break to catch fish in the flooded street at Pluck Road, Woodland.
The man-made Channel, which connects to the Gordineau River, is one of the major watercourses in the South Oropouche Basin. It measures 42 kilometers in length. Following weekend rains, there have been three breaches to the river bank which is causing the water to flow directly into the Woodland community, one of the lowest points in the drainage basin.
Despite the misery of flood losses, the residents picked up their fishing nets and threw them into floods, surprisingly catching fresh water fish like cascadura and cuscarub. They were then thrown back into the floods.
Chris Samsundar said the fishing was a form of stress relief.
” My house flooded and since 1 o’clock I am up. We moving things on higher ground. This water going to be here for more than a week. There is no way we could begin to count losses until the floods of down,” he lamented.
Another resident Sieunarine Bansegopaul said more and more water from the river was flooding the community.” Water is rising now, higher and higher. We all bracing for the worse,” he said.
More than two feet of water remained inside his house. But Bansegopaul said they expected more devastation.
Many residents have already evacuated while others refused to leave. At Rahamut Trace, the force of the floods pushed debris into people’s homes. An elderly man, Mahadeo Deokumar waded through the floods, as he returned from his garden.
” We have 13 animals in the back there. I was worried for them,” he said.
Meanwhile repairs to a 50 ft breach of the river are underway but the residents said this did not make sense.
” Now they trying to do it? They wasting time and money, Bansegopaul said.
Guardian Media will bring you more as this story develops.
