Rainfall, high tides leave several East Coast villages under water
Several areas along the Eas Coast Demerara remained heavi ly flooded yesterday, followin heavy rainfall on Thursday, com pounded by high tides.
Stabroek News visited th communities from Industry al the way to Enmore where a num ber of yards in various village were heavily inundated.
While a heavy downpour start ed around 2.30 pm on Thursda and lasted a little over an hour East Coast residents explaine that it wasn’t until yesterda morning when they awakene that they discovered their yard heavily flooded. There was mor rainfall on Thursday night but no as much as there had been durin the afternoon.
At Felicity, Indrawatti Mohammed explained that sh went to bed with “a little wate covering the yard” and woke u to her entire bottom-flat apart ment flooded.
“I don’t know is what exactl happen. The rain fall nuff, nuf yesterday [Thursday] but it didn flood so bad and is when I wak up and I come off me bed and pu me foot on the ground that I real ize it flood out,” the woman said
She pointed out that while sh had not suffered any major dam age, some of her furniture wa damaged and she had to endur the floodwater, which was reced ing very slowly, and the discom fort it brought to her.
“It ain’t got much I could d right now. I got to bear through i and do my work cause it no going down. Is already half th day and it ain’t gone nowher yet,” she added.
Mohammed’s neighbours yards were also under heav water. One woman explained tha she had to relocate “about 2 something chickens” inside he house because of the amount o water.
Mohammed also said that sh has several dozen chickens at th back of her yard but could no check on them because of th amount of water that had accu mulated. “I don’t know if the dead or not because I can’t go a the back there. It too deep so just have to wait,” the woma explained.
At Vryheid’s Lust, the primar school compound was complete ly flooded. Students were force to use a makeshift bridge, mad from long wooden planks to ente and exit the learning institution One parent related that the schoo has been in that condition sinc Thursday and the water “doesn seem like it’s going down.”
Of all the communities along the East Coast that were flooded, Buxton seemed the hardest hit. When Stabroek News visited the village, the southern section, which is often referred to as Buxton Backdam, was under at least two feet of water. It was difficult to distinguish between the road and the two trenches that run parallel to it, since the water had completely flowed over.
Residents said there was no major damage to personal items, but they were in a state of discomfort since they had to navigate deep water to reach the road, which was also flooded. Livestock and other animals were seen wading through the water to seek dry ground.
“We don’t have any damage cause the water didn’t come in but is just that it ain’t going away. It taking long, long and the yard and everything else flooded and you got to walk through that and endure that,” a resident of the area, who did not want to be named, told Stabroek News.
While some persons were of the opinion that the pumps in Buxton were not working, which they assumed was the main reason why the water was receding slowly, when Stabroek News checked, the two pumps were in fact working and had been working all day.
There is currently one large pump that takes water from the main canal in the area to a large basin and then another mobile pump that dumps the water over the seawall. However, according to some residents, the two pumps are inadequate and cannot deal with the volume of water.
“Look at those two pumps. One barely pumping water and look old, old and the one that throwing it over the seawall way smaller than the one that throwing it in the basin,” a concerned resident explained. Whilst his yard was not flooded, he was of the opinion that the capacity of the two pumps was not enough to deal with the village’s flooding woes.
Residents of other areas were also convinced that the pumps slated to provide relief in their areas were not working. However, when Stabroek News checked, all of the pumps were working and had been working since Thursday, according to the operators.
They explained that the sluice doors had to be closed at 1 pm yesterday and were going to be reopened after six hours because of the high tide. Once these doors are closed drainage capacity slows as it is difficult for the pumps alone to take the water off the land. “The tide comes and goes every six hours so when it opens back then more water will flow and the floodwaters will come off the land quicker,” one of the operators explained.
Meanwhile, in the city, water had receded in the central business district as well as some residential areas. Town Clerk Royston King had said on Thursday that the Mayor and City Council had so far expended more than $120 million to clean the drains and canals to ensure quick and unhindered drainage. However, this did not apply to boundary wards like Cummings Lodge as well as many areas in south Georgetown which remained inundated up to late yesterday.