KEVON FELMINE
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
While the thrumming sound of rain brings panic to people living in flood-prone areas, it is a terrifying affair for residents of Valley View, Gasparillo, whose entire community is on the verge of crumbling.
When the rains came on Tuesday morning, residents woke up to part of their road caved into a river, the T&TEC poles leaning, and their homes shifting away from their original spots. One house that a family had to abandon a few years ago finally met its inevitable end as pieces crumbled into a river.
Dyron Demol fears that more rains will cause the entire road to collapse into the river, trapping several families. If not addressed over time, there will be a dangerous landslide.
"It started with the neighbour’s house over there where it looks like it is in bushes because nobody cut it down. She had to move out first because the river had already pulled her house. Since then, we have been talking to them (authorities). Even if they could not provide a team to do the work, bring blocks, cement and concrete. We have men here who could work," Demol said.
Several children could not attend school, and adults stayed away from work as a significant part of the road collapsedm making it impossible for vehicles to drive along the road unless they were All-Wheel Drive. Demol said residents living at the end of the community have to park their cars near his home and walk. The mud from the slipping land gathered outside Demol’s home yesterday: evidence of the crumbling landscape.
"There are little children going to school from in the back here. Mud piles up down there where they are supposed to come out. They cannot come out. These are children in white shoes. How are they supposed to come out there? They cannot come out. There is no proper drainage," Demol said.
Even the bridges passing over two rivers are on the verge of collapse. Rocks, branches and dirt dammed both rivers. Demol said the community has been crying out for help for years, but none was forthcoming.
Pensioner Dawn Hernandez wore garden boots to leave her home as her feet sank into slush. With the rains falling heavily yesterday morning, her son could not leave home to get to work in Couva. Hernandez said several bouts of inclement weather and the large vehicles passing on the road recently exacerbated the road conditions. While the slipping lands began a few years ago, she said it was the first time the situation got so bad, causing all the houses at the end of Valley View Road to shift.
"We need drainage. Do you know how long they (authorities) said they are coming to do drainage? They started in front and ended right in front. I could not even send my granddaughter to school this morning. About three days now, she has not gone to school due to the condition of the road," Hernandez said.
She fears that if the authorities fail to act, people will come to the community one day and find their homes destroyed. Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Regional Corporation Chairman Henry Awong said the Disaster Management Unit did not get any reports about the conditions at Valley View Road. Awong said he would send a team of employees to assess the community.
