A nation sinking, nothing has changed

November 26 to November 28, 2022. Three days of torrential rain and heavy flooding. Nothing has changed in Trinidad and Tobago since October 2018.

October 17-19, 2018: Trinidad had a full month of torrential rain in three days. Up to 150,000 people, in 10,000 homes across 80 per cent of the island, primarily in the North, East and Central parts of the island nation such as Sangre Grande, Matelot, La Horquetta, St Helena, Caroni and Mayaro.

Families, communities, main roads and public services were badly affected by the ensuing flooding.

This column, an account of a woman living in St Helena is dedicated to the people of T&T, who saved themselves, their loved ones and neighbours; demonstrated resilience in the face of loss, and restored faith in ourselves as a people.

From this account, this magnitude of flooding could have been prevented.

“On Thursday 18th my husband called to say the Caroni river was rising. We went home and began putting our fridge, stove, and washing machine, on two feet high concrete blocks. Friday the rain was falling hard. The water came up really quickly. I called my son who lives in Greenvale to help.

“We added one more block to the next, after that red blocks then sandbags, we kept piling things on top of stacked chairs. The water started to come from the bathroom drain, and the front door, pushing at us. By 4 pm the water was everywhere. The TV, fridge, everything in the water. Gas tanks were floating. My nephew came in a dingy and brought food for us.

“By nighttime, on the road, the water was chest high, it was filthy smelling of the dump and debris. My brothers waded with us to keep us steady through that water at eleven in the night to take us to the safety of another relative.

“When the rain subsided we went to our son’s house in Greenvale where 300 families live.

“My son and his wife, like everyone else there, lost everything. They had to throw out their fridges, washing machines, everything. The only thing they have is their bed and a built-in wardrobe. My sons’ neighbour told us she was on the phone with her husband saying. ‘like the water is coming up fast, you think it will come inside?’ when it was there in her house. It came that fast.

Water was coming out of sockets. It was about six feet high. She heard people screaming at the top of their lungs for help.

“Stewart Young came in a helicopter and left.

“The Government built Greenvale in a pond by the bank of the Caroni River. It was a swamp. People told the politicians that it was a catchment for water that goes so high it covers the coconut trees in the rain. They said they had a plan for that. The people of Greenvale are asking to relocate. That water didn’t go down till Sunday morning. We didn’t have water to wash things. No one came to South Bank Caroni road. No army, no police, no water, no electricity. I didn’t know where to turn. My sisters, brothers, in-laws’, neighbours came, and friends came to help. For the week I didn’t have to cook. One dinner, one lunch, that’s how they rotated it.

“I got water on Wednesday after I made a whole lot of fuss. I called the St Helena Regional Corporation saying everything was stinking, and they sent a truck to take away the ruined things.

“My son has moved it with us. My brother-in-law built a bookshelf for my daughter, and a wardrobe without doors until we buy. The place still stinks. The walls still have water. I don’t sleep in the night, I think oh my God. It was an emotional nightmare, to see them; to see that disaster.

I went home, closed my door and cried for hours “This disaster could have been prevented if the regional cooperation did their job. They need to clean the Caroni river, drains, ponds and dams. They need to build box drains, make them deep enough to hold water, build a bigger catchment for water, drain, dredge the rivers, make them wider, cleaner, upkeep the ponds. They are all catchments for water.

“I am terrified when it rains. Multiply what happened to me by ten thousand families or more.”

Nov 1, 2018. End of account.

The Government has begun to give relief cheques to the affected.