A
alexk
Guest
CEO of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) Neville Wint has listed between “70 to 80 areas” in Trinidad affected by Monday’s heavy showers.
He said of the 14 corporations eight were affected.
“Today they are doing mop-up operations, doing damage assessment and providing whatever relief. The corporations sent out their teams to the areas impacted. They have been going from house-to-house and street-to-street,” Wint said yesterday, as he gave an update of the damages done by the rainfall.
He identified Port-of-Spain, Tunapuna/Piarco, San Juan/Laventille, Diego Martin, Couva /Tabaquite/ Talparo, Penal Debe, Chaguanas and Princes Town as the corporations affected.
As the rain persisted yesterday, Wint said the Met office had not lifted the severe weather bulletin. Several areas along the East/West corridor were again affected by rising floods. And there were reports of landslides and fallen trees along the Lady Young Road. The Diego Martin River also overflowed its banks yesterday.
While it was predicted that T&T would be affected by bad weather, Wint said the severity of the impact they could not tell.
In some corporations, he said flood waters ran off quickly.
“The homes that were flooded were provided with relief items such as blankets and hampers.”
Wint admitted that the ODPM and corporations have received a number of calls from flood victims which they responded to. Having tracked the calls, Wint said between 70 to 80 areas in the country had been affected.
The majority of the calls, he said, came out of the Couva/Tabaquite/Talparo Corporation.
“If we tally the areas that have been reported Couva has the most reports as of this time. But as we complete the response and recovery we would then be able to say which corporation has been severely impacted.”
Wint said there was one home in Belmont that was flooded to the point “that a Port-of-Spain shelter had to be opened last night for three people.”
Wint said clean-up operations were impeded as WASA had to discontinue its supply in some areas.
“But the corporations were using truck-borne water to assist burgesses.”
He said families who lost appliances and furniture would be assessed by the Ministry of Social Development and Family Services.