Furious residents in St Lucy demanded immediate government intervention following Sunday night’s chaos in which dozens were trapped in their homes and cars by fast-rising floodwaters while firefighters struggled to cope.
At Maycocks Terrace, overlooking Maycock’s Bay on the parish’s west coast, Barbados TODAY found residents sweeping mud and debris from their houses after floodwaters there rose as much as two feet (610mm) late on Sunday night.
Yolande Sobers, who lives with her son and a downstairs tenant, said the rain started around 2 p.m. on Sunday, and by late night, things began to spiral out of control.
“The rain was just falling constantly, and the water started rising,” she said. “We called the fire department. They were unable to help us because they said that they don’t come out in the rain. We have a pump; we tried pumping it off. We got two additional pumps, but the volume of the water was too much for the pumps that we had.”
Sobers described the experience as “terrible” and “helpless”, showing Barbados TODAY the water levels from the previous night before the fire services arrived around 9 a.m. on Monday. She revealed that the family had no insurance to cover the losses.
“I can’t even tell you what emotions were going through me, that’s the truth. As I told somebody earlier, if I allow myself to feel anything, I probably would break down. So I can’t even tell you what my emotions are, but I know the feeling was terrible… I felt helpless.”
She praised St Lucy MP Peter Phillips for his hands-on support. “He was out here with us from yesterday when we called him. He came and he was here till after ten last night. He really stuck it out with us.”
Phillips confirmed that Sobers’ tenant lost all her belongings in the flood. “I know the government is prepared to do something and to assist these residents. For the lady who lost all her clothing, furniture, and suchlike, I would certainly be reaching out to get that kind of assistance for her.”
The MP said several other homes were affected, and authorities had to act quickly to bring relief. “We had to mobilise the Barbados Defence Force and the Fire Service to assist residents,” he said. “The water came too fast and too high, and we had to prevent further flooding in houses that had been affected in the past.”
Phillips also raised concerns about long-standing drainage issues. “There were about five wells promised to be sunk in the parish, and I will be following up to ensure this is done. It is not a good feeling when residents cannot sleep because of heavy rainfall,” he said, emphasising the need for preventative measures rather than reactive responses.
He added that other areas damaged by the floodwaters need repair. “We also had some severe road damage; Trench Road just past the Daryl Jordan School, where a significant part of the road was actually raked up.”
Rontae Johnson, chairperson of the St Lucy District Emergency Organisation (DEO), said her team had been deployed across the parish to pump out water, distribute gel bags to replace sandbags, and help residents secure leaking roofs. “Our members were at a lot of homes where the waterways were flooded to assist families,” she said.
Another resident, Ryan Clarke, described his efforts to protect his home. “When it was rising, we tried to use some pumps that we had bought, but that wasn’t sufficient. So then we got two pumps from two different people, submersible pumps to help us, that at least stopped it from going into my house, helped me maintain it from going into my house, but my neighbour’s house was flooding. As you see, the amount of water was much higher than it is right now.”
Frustrated by recurring flooding, Clarke said: “We’ve been promised a solution for this here. I’ve heard that it was just waiting for a signature. I’ve heard people come around and say, ‘Which side do you want to put the wells?’ And it isn’t happening. So I’m just tired of false promises. I’m just tired.
“If I could have done it myself, it would have been done. I would not have depended upon them to help, but I don’t like the fact that instead of being proactive, they’re being reactive.”
Another nearby resident said that government solutions to the recurring floodwaters are not working, as the water has nowhere to go and remains stagnant.
“So eventually it will dry out, but you need to give it enough time to dry out, yeah, but that’s the challenge here. Now, if we get rainfall again tomorrow, this will all be back up here at my front door again. So I don’t know if they can put in some wells here, because the wells here lead to nowhere again.”
The resident appealed for urgent action, warning that the stagnant water is a major mosquito breeding site. “I don’t know where, if it is anything that they can do, if they can send it to the sea; it is just below there. If they can trench it and send the water that way, but something needs to be done in regards to all this water, because when we purchased this spot and we built our home, we saw the drains at the bottom of the road. I said, ‘OK’, so then we’re good, but no one would think that these drains really and truly go nowhere. So again, a lot of the infrastructure across the island does not facilitate the challenges that we are facing.”
louriannegraham@barbadostoday.bb
The post Flood-hit St Lucy wants urgent action after residents trapped overnight appeared first on Barbados Today.
