Flood water which broke the banks of rivers, flowed down streets and saturated the lands, proved more than an inconvenience as reports of landslips, water contamination and flooding in the streets left thousands without water, several without electricity and caused walls in people’s homes to fall because of land slippage.

Houses in danger in PoS

Land slippage threatened homes in the Port of Spain and Diego Martin Regional Corporations causing walls and trees to fall and threatening the very foundations of some homes.

Newsday went to Barton Lane, Belmont, where Roland Ochasingh, who lived in his house with his mother for more than 50 years had the wall at the front of their house collapse at about midday on Sunday.

“I just heard a loud noise. I didn’t realise that it was the wall that fell,” Ochasingh said. “One of the neighbours came and told me that my wall fell down.”

He said he put up the wall about 12 years ago, with a foundation four feet deep and three feet wide. But the consistent rain which fell most of Saturday night and into Sunday morning, saturated the soil to a point where the wall could no longer hold.

“The water just kept coming through. Eventually it threw down the whole wall.”

Belmont councillor Nicole Young told Newsday she visited the area and asked the disaster response unit to assist.

Officers arrived at the scene and supplied Ochasingh with large plastic sheets to cover the affected land and prevent it from getting even more saturated. She said in the longer term he would be assisted in getting home repairs.

She said land slippage also affected a lamp pole further up on Barton Lane. The TT Electricity Commission (T&TEC) were notified and were assessing the damage.

Flooding, landslips in Maraval

In the Diego Martin Regional Corporation, Chairman Sigler Jack told Newsday residents of Grapefruit Crescent Haleland Park, Maraval was one of the worst affected as water cascading down from the mountains made the road impassible.

“This always happens,” he said. “The way the development there was laid out it settles in the middle of two mountains which forms a valley. When water comes down Grapefruit Crescent becomes a river.”

He said people in Maraval were also affected by land slippage and people in Paramin and Cameron Hill were affected by fallen trees. In Cameron Hill a large mango tree fell cutting off electricity to the community.

Both Jack and Young said people who built their homes on an incline are being affected by land slippage, even more so as rain has been consistently falling for a week saturating the soil.

An adverse weather warning was issued on Saturday, for between 2 am to 6 pm as a result of passing tropical storm Grace. The warning has since been taken down.

Council woman calls for overpass drain to be cleared

In the Tunapuna Regional Corporation, J-Lynn Roopnarine, councillor for Curepe/Pasea said while residents woul