Families in Moruga/Princes Town were bracing for more backlash last night after the rains came down in the wake of the passage of Tropical Storm Bret.
Judy Figaroo, a mother of five from Moruga whose home collapsed under the force of Bret, said she had nowhere to rest her head as the emergency shelters were not accessible because of rising flood waters.
While her neighbours hurriedly tried to salvage her valuables from the collapsed house, Figaroo said she was uncertain about what to do.
Recalling the horror, Figaroo said she was inside with her five children—Stepan, 21, Kiel, 18, Soriah, 17, Danah, 14 and Mickila, ten—when there was a loud crash as the force of the winds toppled her house onto a nearby shed.
“We had no time to do anything except run out of there. We went to a neighbour’s house,” Figaroo said.
Along the Moruga Main Road, a sprawling 60-year-old milkwood tree collapsed on top of a house owned by Anthony Sambury and a garage owned by Sambury’s neighbour Marva Cooper. The trunk of the tree, which measured about four feet in diameter, flattened a GMC truck which was parked in the garage.
Huge chunks of concrete were scattered on the roadway and electricity lines remained down when the T&T Guardian visited around 2 pm.
Parts of Moruga remained without electricity for most of the day.
Sambury’s wife Rhonda Patterson said when the tree fell she thought it was a car crash.
“First I heard the creaking sound and the crash. There was a bang as the transformer blew. We had to run out of the house with the two children,” Patterson said.
At White Trace, Moruga, Courtney Hudlin and his family were still bailing out water from inside their home. Their muddy waterlogged couch stood outside while his brand new refrigerator floated in the flood waters.
Hudlin’s neighbours, who stayed home from work, helped him salvage his valuables.
Nearby, along Poui Trace, St Mary’s, Andy Guerra tried to fix his roof which blew off. His nephew Enrico Guerra said when the floods came the water gushed into his house, reaching up to the electrical panel box.
“We took off the electricity supply. There was a lot of water in the house and now we are hoping that more rains don’t fall,” Guerra said.
Natalie Patrice, from the Moruga Poverty Reduction Centre, meanwhile spent most of the day visiting the affected families.
“We went to Rock River, Basse Terre and La Rufin where homes were waterlogged and parts of the roofs blew off,” she said.
With houses still under water up to late afternoon, Patrice and her team distributed food hampers, dry clothing, sheets, baby diapers and wipes to affected families.
“It was sad to see so many people affected. One man had to drag his refrigerator and stove out in the road. Trees fell across the road at Basse Terre and Penal Rock Road. At Edward Trace, one house collapsed. They lost everything,” Patrice said.
Despite the hopelessness of some families, some children used the floods for entertainment.
Tyler Jairam and his big brother Sean were seen jetsking in the floods.
Up to 5 pm, hundreds of householders from St Mary’s to Marac remained without electricity.
Meanwhile, the Water and Sewerage Authority said several water treatment plants remained down last night because of flooded river intakes and power failures.
WASA said the plants are expected to return to service in the coming hours as river conditions normalise and the power supply is restored at the various locations.