Flash flood­ing in parts of South Trinidad on Wednes­day forced com­muters to seek al­ter­na­tive routes in Pe­nal, Rio Claro and Ma­yaro, while some res­i­dents were trapped in­doors and two schools were dis­missed ear­ly.   

Sit­ting in his flood­ed-out home at Ocean Sand Road, Man­zanil­la Road, Sel­wyn Be­dayse re­called his loss­es. He said the riv­er burst its banks, and flood­ed his home. 

"The whole house, every­thing flood­ed out. We lost a lot of things be­cause the wa­ter was re­al high: mat­tress, bed wardrobe, the deep freeze, wash­ing ma­chine, every­thing was un­der wa­ter, every­thing." 

While thank­ing the Ma­yaro/Rio Claro Cor­po­ra­tion for their as­sis­tance, he said giv­en the re­cent weath­er he is brac­ing for more floods. How­ev­er, he re­quest­ed that the au­thor­i­ties dredge the rivers to mit­i­gate floods in the com­mu­ni­ty.  

Mean­while, the prin­ci­pals of the St Thomas RC School in Ma­yaro and Guayagua­yare Sec­ondary School dis­missed class­es ear­ly due to ris­ing flood wa­ters, which flood­ed the com­pound of the pri­ma­ry school.  

Some ar­eas in Rio Claro, in­clud­ing Buck­et Cor­ner and Pay­mar Branch Trace, and Lib­ertville were af­fect­ed.  

In Pe­nal, Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um is­sued an emer­gency bul­letin ad­vis­ing staff to seek al­ter­na­tive routes, stat­ing that roads near Triple J Bar in Syne Vil­lage and Lowkie Trace were im­pass­able. 

How­ev­er, when Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed, the floods had al­ready re­ced­ed, with drains show­ing signs of the in­creased wa­ter flow. One res­i­dent, John­ny Bobb, braved the rain to clean the clogged drain near the quar­ter mile mark along the Pe­nal Rock Road with­in the con­stituen­cy of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar.  

An­oth­er res­i­dent, San­dra Mar­cano, who has been liv­ing in the com­mu­ni­ty for 33 years, said the prob­lem was not that the drains weren't cleaned. 

"For years they clean­ing the drain and is the same prob­lem...they will put the rub­bish on top of the pave­ment, so when you walk­ing you have to walk in the road...If the rain falls with­in that time, the same rub­bish will be go­ing back in­to the same drain," she said, adding that the area ex­pe­ri­ences fre­quent floods. "Most of the time if it floods here, no­body could come in, no cars can't pass. No cars is pick­ing you up so we will have a prob­lem."  

Fur­ther down the road, em­ploy­ees of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion were clean­ing the drains near Dabiedi­al Road Junc­tion. 

Coun­cil­lor and Cor­po­ra­tion vice chair­man, Shan­ti Boodram said this was part of the flood mit­i­ga­tion pro­gramme that was launched last week by Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Khadi­jah Ameen. 

Com­plain­ing that the area was ne­glect­ed by the pre­vi­ous ad­min­is­tra­tion, Boodram as­sured that, de­spite be­ing in the rainy sea­son, they would get the job done. 

She said two con­trac­tors, in­clud­ing A & L Road Works and Con­struc­tion, have vol­un­teered their equip­ment free of charge. 

“The cor­po­ra­tion on­ly have two small ex­ca­va­tors and that has to be utilised for ten coun­cil­lors in the re­gion so that is not enough. That is why we were ask­ing all along in the dry sea­son to get equip­ment to clean and clear the wa­ter cours­es which did not hap­pen. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, the rainy sea­son is up­on us,but we will get the job done still."

Mean­while, in Williamsville, a tree fell on a res­i­dent's garage, but no one was in­jured. 

The South West Re­gion­al Health Au­thor­i­ty al­so is­sued a pub­lic no­tice that the Flana­gin Town and Tabaquite Health Cen­tres would be closed at noon due to risks as­so­ci­at­ed with the in­clement weath­er.