Guardian ( Trinidad and Tobago )
05 July 2023 ( Page 10 )
Strong winds damage roofs, batter boats in South
SASCHA WILSON AND KELLYANN LEMMESY
Strong winds damaged more than 14 roofs, battered boats, uprooted trees,
ripped down electrical lines, and left residents shaken in several
communities in south Trinidad yesterday.
There were no reports of injuries, but residents were left picking up the
pieces and trying to get assistance to fix their homes.
Residents of Ferrier Circular, Guayaguayare, described swirling winds
ripping through their community just after 9 am.
On the brink of tears, Annette Wilson told Guardian Media that she
returned home from work to find her home without a roof and everything
in her house water-soaked.
Wilson was unsure where she, her son, and her grandson would spend the
night.
“I don’t know where I’m putting my head tonight. I still have people to
help, I might take a little rest by them tonight. I can’t do nothing again.
They try to fix it back for me partly, neighbours around helping me too,
and friends,” she lamented.
Another resident, Bernadette Fonrose, said her pommerac tree was
uprooted and fell on other trees.
“I just see that wind lift that pommerac tree up in the air and that
pommerac tree just fall down.
I bawl because I have never experienced anything like that in
Guayaguayare,” she said.
She was waiting for assistance to clear the pathway to her home.
“I have to get somebody to rake up the branches from the Chinese nut tree
so that my husband, who uses crutches to get home, will be able to pass.”
Jennifer Williams recalled how they tried to remove their beds and other
items to a secure area when they realised what was happening.
“Right now the roof is on the other side at the garage by the front area,
that is where the roof landed, and it is very dangerous to go there because
on the 30th of March, my house got burned,” she lamented.
Another resident, 79-year-old Phillip Cummings, was alone at his home
at Trinity Road, Rustville, Guayaguayare, when part of his roof was blown
off.
His daughter-in-law, Shoba Outar, who lives close by, was thankful that
he was not injured.
However, she said he needed assistance to fix his roof. “Right now he have
nowhere to sleep and he don’t want to come by us. He have animals,
ducks, and he would not want to leave them,” she said.
Fisherman Hayden Mentor said at least four boats were damaged and nets.
When these incidents occur, he said fishermen in Guayaguayare do not
usually receive compensation.
Help for residents
When contacted, Mayaro-Rio Claro Regional Corporation chairman
Raymond Cozier said the Disaster Management Team was in the field
doing assessments and providing mattresses and tarpaulins to affected
residents. He said they would also try to assist residents with material to
repair their homes.
He said they received three reports of damaged roofs in Guayaguayare and
one at Begorat Hill Extension.
Meanwhile, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management issued
an incident report, minus the incidents at Guayaguayare and Mayaro. It
stated that as of 3.15 pm, there were reports of 13 roofs blown off in the
North West, North Central, South Central, South West, and Eastern
Region, and 12 reports of fallen trees in South Central and South West.
In Tobago, 13 incidents were reported, including two blown-off roofs,
street flooding at Hope Farm Road, five fallen trees, structural damage to
two homes, and ripped electrical lines.
Photo: The home of Annette Wilson is covered by tarpaulin after heavy winds
blew off her roof on Ferrier Circular, Guayaguayare, yesterday.
Photo: A fallen roof at the home of Jennifer Williams on Ferrier Circular Main
Road, Guayaguyare, yesterday.
PICTURES KELLYANN LEMMESY