By: Kimberly Ramkhalawan
October 7, 2022
In what was categorized by the National Hurricane Centre to be a Tropical Wave and Depression, Invest 91L came from the Atlantic on Wednesday Morning bringing torrential showers and gusty winds up 65km/hr to north east Trinidad and the island of Tobago, leaving many clean up their homes from knee high debris and mounds of silt, and to only count their losses.
While the country was placed on an adverse weather warning by its Met Service some 24 hours prior to the weather system reaching its shores, many in the country are feeling they were not given significant warning as to how bad the system was anticipated.
From as early as 9am reports of widespread flooding, landslides, downed power lines, and flashes of lightning and thunder recorded at a whopping 1000 lightning strikes under two hours painted a picture of a violent and strong thunderstorm affecting the twin island state.
By 9.45am, rainfall had accumulated to 59.8mm, with a rainfall rate of 135mm per hour recorded. Commuters headed to work and students included were caught in what appeared to be mayhem. Students and teachers at the North Eastern College, located in Sangre Grande were seen to be wading through waters within the compound while taking a drenching from above.
Tobago had seemed to have endured the worst of it, as parts of the island was left without power for most of Wednesday, while parts of the island experienced flood waters resulting in the rescue of three families. These flood waters were said to have been exacerbated by spring tides preventing the waters from receding, in addition waterways clogged by mounds of bamboo stalks, fallen trees and debris coming from mountainsides. Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly, Farley Augustine, held a press conference on Wednesday afternoon to share his team’s mobilization efforts along with Tobago Emergency Management Agency, TEMA, and members of the TT defense force, coast guard and the police service to assist those affected by the landslides and floods.
In Trinidad, Bon Air Gardens located at the foothills of the Northern range, saw its road ways turn into raging waters coming down from the hillsides, slamming into walls of homes and even pushing vehicles in its path. Quickly several roadways were reported to have been washed away, while landslides along Balandra Road, Toco rendered the area cut off and impassable.
Up to Thursday night, fire officers and members of the Hunters Search and Rescue Team continued its search for Theresa Lynch after she was washed away by flood waters in Surrey Village, Lopinot on Wednesday evening. According to reports, Lynch along with a relative attempted to cross what appeared to be two feet of water, which suddenly turned into six feet, pulling her into the river. However, by the end Thursday, the search and rescue team shared their efforts might now have to move to the ocean, after their hunts along the banks of the Caroni River, Trincity and along the Arouca River, Arima Old Road since Wednesday night and all-day Thursday had proven futile.
However, while most of the rains seemed to have settled by Thursday despite the overcast skies, rivers were now at their threshold with many breaking their banks and covering roadways causing the TT Met Service to raise its Riverine Flood alerts from yellow to orange, and prompting the Ministry of Education to call an emergency day off for all schools on Thursday morning, when most pupils were traversing the waters to get to their classrooms, a move that was widely chastised by parents and the public.
In providing an update as to how it had deployed its Disaster Management units attached to the 14 regional corporations around the country, Local Government Minister Faris Al Rawi shared that some 145 disaster related reports were received, with 95 of those attributed to the Tunapuna Piarco region. He shared that all DMUs were put on alert with over 700 members of the municipal police responding to flood related matters across Trinidad. And while the government appears to have taken flack for not enough alerts issued, information disseminated and response times from the Office of Disaster Preparedness Management, the Local Government minister shared that all hands were in fact on deck. Reports on Thursday shared that emergency responders were caught “napping” ahead of and during the inclement weather event experienced on Wednesday. Al Rawi also went on to defend the perennial matter of pumps not working sufficiently at rivers to get waters out of the streets and back into the waterways. He added that rivers were experiencing higher than normal water volumes after Wednesday’s torrential rains and attributed flooded streets to the abnormal and rapid run off of water from numerous rooftops in densely populated areas.
Riverine alerts are expected to last into late Friday with the high levels of water as well as with spring tides in effect and the forecast of potential showers.