kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
With the rains sparing no part of the country over the past three days, several families had to scamper to safety in south Trinidad with floods, landslides and saturated soil damaging their homes and threatening their lives.
Relatives had to rush through the rain around 3 am on Monday to rescue Meera Mohess, 57, and her daughters Savera, 36, and Sarva, 21, as the family lay trapped inside their collapsed home.
Mohess told Guardian Media that she and Savera were awake on the upper story of her two-storey wooden house in Congo Village, Debe, when they heard a cracking sound.
Mohess told Savera to check outside to see what was making the noise. As Savera walked to the staircase, she saw the sill cracking. They tried not to move but the house began to fall apart within seconds.
A sleeping Sarva woke up trapped between two beds. Mohess was under a door and parts of the roof covered Savera. Mohess said none of them could get out of the house.
It was dark and rainy but fortunately, Sarva reached her mobile phone and called her relatives, Kevin Ramkaran and “Bunny.”
The men arrived within 10 minutes, pulling debris off the women. Mohess made it out, bleeding from her head and bruises on her arms. Her daughters were a bit more fortunate regarding physical injury, but their clothes, furniture and appliances were all soaked in the rain. Even Mohess’ diabetes medicine got lost in the rubble.
T&TEC subsequently cut power to the house while Penal/Debe Regional Corporation workers cleaned the clubhouse at the Congo Village Recreation Ground to provide shelter for the family for the next few days.
However, Mohess said she needs help to shelter her family and rebuild their home.
Another family in Clarke Road, Penal, nearly suffered a similar fate, but according to neighbours, they left the house fearing it would crush them inside.
No one was home when the news team visited, but the dislocated columns and long cracks in the wall showed the danger.
Neighbours said land movement in the area is worrying and worsened with recent rains.
A landslip stretching several hundred meters had already made the road that connects Barrackpore to Penal impassable to vehicles.
Residents said soon they may not be able to walk along the roadway.
Carmen Seepersad said the landslip cut off her family and neighbours from the rest of the village. To get to her job at the Clarke Road Hindu Primary School, she has to travel down to Barrackpore and pass through Satnarine Trace to get past the landslip. Without transportation, she will have to walk past the landslip.
Another landslip developed further along the road and water eroded part of the land next to a retaining wall. Seepersad said the road closed two months ago.
Meanwhile, some residents of Rochard Road, Barrackpore, left their homes on Sunday afternoon after the drains and rivers in their community began to spill into their homes.
Bissoondial Seeram stood in his yard with nowhere to go as his home flooded for the ninth time in two weeks.
Seeram said the flood came around 4.30 pm Sunday and subsided around 11 pm. But when the downpours returned, the water rose again, gushing across Rochard Road up to midday. He said several senior citizens took refuge at their relatives’ homes.
Seeram said residents are accustomed to getting flooded, with yesterday being the ninth time they suffered water entering their homes in two weeks.
“Some of them went by their relatives to spend the day at least because most of us cannot really stay around in this thing,” Seeram said.
He said a narrow culvert passing under the road is the problem, as it cannot accommodate three streams of water coming from different directions.
Seeram does not work every day but has to spend what he earns to replace damaged items. He lost a refrigerator and washing machine when the water breached the flood walls he built. He also has to replace doors regularly as the water swells the material.
Meanwhile, floodwaters remained high in Woodland, with residents along Pluck Road unable to get any relief from the weekend rains.