bobie-lee.dixon@guardian.co.tt
“Never thought I would hit rock bottom, I’m homeless! All I have is my ATM card and the clothes on my back.”
These were the words of a flood victim who preferred to be identified only as Jason.
Jason, yesterday joined the sorrow-stricken community of Greenvale Park, La Horquetta, that was severely affected by Friday’s near 24-hour long downpour, which left the community under high levels of water, destroying homes, cars and other valuables.
“There’s no longer a community there,” says a despondent-sounding Jason. The community is basically under water. They say it is subsiding but we know the rain is coming again and it possible it can happen again.”
Jason who lived with his family at Greenvale Park for the past three years, spent Friday night for the first time apart, as they sought temporary shelter at the various homes of family members. He tells Sunday Guardian he has nothing to salvage.
“Miss, I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I don’t know. Right now I have no home and no hope.”
He said it was the worst his community had ever experienced following the rains.
Recalling the events told to him by his wife who was home alone with their son at the time of the rising water levels, Jason described it as surreal and “movie like.
“She told me inside the house the water levels had reached knee high, so residents filtered out into the roadway where it was reaching chest-level.
“People who got out of their homes in time had to carry their children, some newborn babies, on their backs and make their way through a track that leads out to La Horquetta where the water level was a bit lower,” Jason explains.
Asked to give an estimate of his losses, Jason replies “I cannot place a value. I practically just finished refurbishing that entire house from the ground up. It cost me twice the amount I bought that house for.”
He also lost two vehicles in the flood devastation.
He said he does not have an immediate plan going forward as it was all too much to process.
“I have been kind of spaced out, just feeling lost. To go from being comfortable to having nothing…I just don’t know what to say. I am just hoping for the best.”