A St Andrew homeowner watched in dismay as torrential overnight rain turned his yard into a muddy quagmire, reviving old flooding nightmares and prompting fresh criticism of drainage works which he insists have made matters worse.
Tuesday found Keith Lowe’s yard in St Simons drenched and sinking in mud — a scene repeated in several other areas across Barbados.
The Barbados Meteorological Services (BMS) issued a flash flood warning on Monday afternoon, reporting that some parts of the island had already received nearly 30 millimetres of rain, with up to 50 millimetres expected by midday on Tuesday.
Meteorologists warned that the downpours could trigger significant runoff from higher elevations, cause soil erosion, and render some roads impassable.
As roads flooded, so too did images of the impact inundate social media, including the 57-year-old St Simons resident’s own feed which showed water rising beneath his lifelong home.
For Lowe, the effects were immediate.
Water rushing off the nearby road flooded the space beneath his cellar — an area still under construction — leaving thick mud behind.
Standing in his yard, he worried that if the rain continued, his home could soon be flooded and possibly damaged.
He told Barbados TODAY he had never had flooding issues before, but said the problem started after the road in the area was resurfaced and the drainage layout changed.
“I remember others told me the water was going under my cellar. I looked out and watched it build up in front of my house,” he recalled.
“The rain wouldn’t stop falling, so it rushed and ate away all of here,” he added, pointing to the front of his doorway.
“Look, all my cellar eating away. There’s a big hole.”
Lowe said he had placed a length of board to raise the curb in front of his door, but it was not enough to keep the water out.
“The water coming through the cellar and building up under the house. All this water used to go that side; now it’s coming my side. All the water from the road, I’m getting all of it under my house,” he said.
“My yard now is a river.”
He said he had warned workers not to lower the sidewalk kerb because of the slope of his property.
“I tell them don’t drop the kerb, keep it at one height so the water doesn’t come down on me, and they still didn’t do what I told them,” he said. “The road was straight, and they came and dropped it and gave us a hill right here now because they didn’t want any more water going elsewhere.”
Pointing towards a nearby drain, he added: “They could’ve built it a certain way to let the water go so, but they stopped the water to send it here. They send all the water here but it is weak… it’s pulling. The next place that’s going to pull away is that shop,” he said, gesturing to a neighbouring building.
Years ago, the St Simons resident said floodwaters took a different route. “These people change up everything and tell us to leave it to the experts. We leave it to the experts and the experts are failing at everything. They don’t want to listen to the people down here,” he said.
He noted that his fence had to be shifted to accommodate a new pipeline laid directly in front of his door. “They promised me blocks to block off the area. They haven’t come. I can’t dig out anywhere there now to protect my house because the pipeline is right there, and if I dig, it will expose it — that will be trouble for me. Nobody is paying me any mind,” he said.
“I just want to be comfortable. I don’t want no problems.”
By Tuesday evening, Lowe said a government team had visited the site and promised to return on Wednesday, weather permitting, to raise the kerb and redirect the water away from his property.
But with more rain forecast for late Tuesday into Wednesday, Lowe said he hoped the effort would not be too little, too late.
The flash flood warning remains in effect until 6 a.m. on Wednesday morning, with intense shower regeneration and occasional downpours likely to persist, and a further increase in rainfall expected overnight.
With soils already saturated, any additional rainfall could still lead to flooding in low-lying and hilly areas, the Met Office advised.
The post As yard turns to mud, St Andrew man blames drainage works appeared first on Barbados Today.
