Heavy daytime showers yesterday caused havoc in St Augustine, Mt Lambert and environs as floodwaters rose to over four feet in height, leaving behind rubbish and other debris. Tunapuna, St Joseph, Curepe, San Juan, Pasea Road and Golden Grove Road were affected by the rain, which lasted over an hour. Students at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, said they were stranded by floodwaters. The library was closed because of flooding and the electrical problems it caused.
Students at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business were evacuated after a drain at the front overflowed. The Maternity Hospital and other sections of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex were flooded but the waters subsided. Traffic came to a standstill along the Eastern Main Road and the Priority Bus Route.
This came after the Meteorological Office forecast a day of moderate to heavy showers and thundershowers which would affect parts of Trinidad. The release said showery activity associated with a tropical wave would lead to street and flash-flooding. When a T&T Guardian team visited Second Avenue, Mt Lambert, residents were busy removing debris from their property and hosing down their walkways.
Harold Farrow, 91, said flooding was not new to the area and he kept sandbags to prevent water from entering his premises. Kyle Gooding was busy washing away mud from his property. “Every time it rain it has floods here,” he said. Aiyegoro Ome, foundation member of the National Joint Action Committee, who lives in the area, said it was a problem the community had for 60 years.
“We have been complaining about this issue and it has been going on for 60 years. The Allen Peter drain has not been dredged in the past two years and the corporation and the Ministry of Works says it is not their responsibility,” he said. Christiana Persad-Longchallon said during the wee hours of the morning she would have to get up and move her car.
“Now it is debris that coming into the yard. One year I saw a mattress and another year the water was so deep I only saw the bonnet of the car,” she said. Staff at the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation said the water quickly subsided.