By ALEXANDER BRUZUAL Saturday, September 8 2012

HEAVY rainfall yesterday afternoon led to a landslip along the Saddle Road in Maraval which in turn caused miles of traffic with some motorists saying they had been stuck in the traffic for as long as four hours.

Less than a month after the Maraval district was hit with heavy flooding which affected several communities, residents were fearing the worse when the rains fell yesterday and the La Seiva River burst its banks, sending silk-laden water onto the roadway.

The most heavily affected areas were in the vicinity of the Sherwin Williams (Paint) Company, (formerly the Kappa Drugs building) at the corner of La Seiva Road and the Saddle Road. In addition to the floods, a landslip occurred along Saddle Road.

While the flood waters may not have been as high as those of last month (and thankfully there was no report of residents or businessmen affected by water damage) the traffic which was caused by the deluge and landslip, was described as “a nightmare.”

“This is literally bumper to bumper traffic as in nobody moving. It took me about 30 minutes to get from Royal Castle to KFC, right around the corner. It was insane. And then as you entered on the Saddle Road, it didn’t get any better. Going into Maraval was an absolute nightmare this evening (yesterday). There is no other way to describe it. It was a nightmare,” said motorist Samir Mohammed.

Marissa Williams, a resident of Morne Coco, said, “when I passed there at about 4 pm, the worst part of it was by the Sherwin Williams building. I saw people being ferried across the roadway by cars or just simply staying put on the building steps, not wanting to risk dirtying their clothes. “Cars could have passed through, the water wasn’t that high.