Friday, August 24 2012

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A man shovels up mud and silt from the road after heavy overnight showers caused mudslides at Hilltop Avenue in La Puerta, Diego Martin....

Reports of fallen trees, power outages and flash flooding were the main effects of the heavy rainfall yesterday morning.

Annabelle Brasnell, Corporate Communications Manager at Trinidad and Tobago Electricity Commission (TTEC) reported a total of 25 outages from Barataria to Diego Martin as a result of blown fuses, trees on lines, downed wires and damaged conductors — all caused by the strong winds and heavy rains.

As of 2 pm, 16 of the outages were completely restored and the various crews were working on restoring seven others. However, up to yesterday, the power in Belmont Valley Road, Belmont, was still out because the repair crew had difficulty accessing the area.

The San Juan/Laventille area was plagued by numerous fallen trees in Morvant, Lower El Socorro, Laventille and other areas while there were reports of flash flooding in various parts of the constituency, including Aranjuez, El Socorro, Barataria and upper Santa Cruz.

Chairman of the Regional Corporation, Nafeesa Mohammed told Newsday there were reports of “one or two” roofs being blown off and that councillors were out on the field, assessing the damage and visiting those who needed help.

Tricia Boodoo, a doubles vendor near the Maritime roundabout in Barataria was at the scene when the area began to flood. She said the rain began heavily with strong gusts of wind at about 6.30 am. “Within the hour, the area started to flood and eventually reached knee high,” she said. “A tree fell on an Xtrail and a lamppost fell on a maxi but no one was damaged.”

When Newsday visited the area at about 10 am, the water had receded and workers of the nearby NP service station were shovelling and washing away mud. Paul McKellar, a gas station attendant, said flooding began at about 7.30 am. “It wasn’t as bad as last year. Nothing was damaged and the whole thing lasted about 45 minutes,” he said.

Meanwhile, in the Diego Martin region, residents panicked as the rains came, fearing a repeat of the flooding and devastation of August 11.

However, the Diego Martin river did not overflow its banks. When Newsday visited the area at about 7.30 am, the water was flowing swiftly but gave no sign of rising to dangerous levels.

Traffic out of Diego Martin, near to Powder Magazine, moved at snail’s pace as vehicles filtered to one lane as half the road was submerged under water. The lower lanes heading into Diego Martin were also flooded and drivers moved slowly through the flood waters.

Diego Martin Regional Corporation Chairman, Anthony Sammy told Newsday there was no major damage or flooding as the rivers and drains were recently cleaned. “There were some trees that fell and couple landslips and landslides but nothing major. We had no reports of houses being damaged or destroyed,” he said.

Sammy said the Corporation workers were quick to respond to the minor problems as they were “prepared for anything” and was thankful that nothing worse occurred.

The Tunapuna / Piarco Regional Corporation too received no reports of major incidents. Most of the reports were of fallen trees and minor flooding in areas such as Bamboo 3; Hillcrest Courts, Paradise, Tacarigua; and Maracas, St Joseph. The Cipriani College of Labour and Cooperative studies in Valsayn was also flooded and there were reports of power outages in Tacarigua and St Augustine North.