"I lost my dog, the dog dead." Two-year-old Alicia Governor uttered these words as she rode her mini truck in her grandmother's yard, at Big Bay, San Souci, yesterday. Barefooted, she looked on as her grandmother, Doloris Governor, outlined all she lost during severe flooding in the area after heavy rainfall on Sunday. The Governors were one of 40 families affected by the bad weather. The river to the back of the family's two- storey house swelled following hours of rainfall and eventually burst its banks, sending five feet of water into the house.
Governor said she was asleep with her seven-year-old grandson when her daughter shouted out that she was "smelling the river." She said she knew then that the river would overflow its bank. "By the time I got upstairs, the water done start to come in and I couldn't save anything much," she said. "I was concerned about saving the children," she added. She said three goats were lost in the flood. Her neighbour, Sherry Ann Cedeno, had little time to save her furniture and appliances. Her house sits close to the edge of the river. She said her four children, who attend the L'Anse Noire Moravian School, lost their schoolbooks and sneakers. Her husband, William Cedeno, said around 2 am on Sunday, he noticed the river swelling.
"We started to put things higher and we call out to the neighbour but it was too late. Their house was already flooded," he said. "Every year we go through this," he added. He said for years residents have been begging for the river to be dredged and for a wall to be erected to prevent water from flooding their homes. He said if that was done they would have been spared from flooding. Councillor for Toco/Sangre Grande, Terry Rondon, estimated that residents in his area lost $4 million in items. He said about 6,000 villagers were affected by landslides and flooding. At the residence of a family of 11, at Mission Village, Paria Main Road, pleas for immediate help were repeatedly made.
Their home stands precariously at the edge of the cliff and could topple over at anytime. Eight children and three adults now fear for their safety, said family member Marilyn Lyons. The entire soil which holds part of the foundation of the house together was washed away by the rain, she noted. She said the front room of the house could fall with one more heavy downpour. "If this continues to slide it will pull down the main house where my mother lives," Lyons said pointing downhill. She said her sister, who lived to the front of the house, cleared her furniture in the event that her portion of the house collapses. She said her sister lives in the front with her four children while her mother and other sibling live with four other children at the main house, located behind.
"We are thinking about breaking down the front from the rest of the house so it would not pull the main house with it if it falls," Lyons said. "I am afraid. We are all afraid. My mother is scared. This could collapse at any time," she added. She said Saturday was the first time the family experienced a landslide. "All our fruit trees went down," she said. Rondon, who visited the family yesterday, begged for Government's intervention. "This is the family I am concerned about the most, I am afraid to sleep tonight. That house could go even now," Rondon said.
