This morning we are experiencing torrential rain in the paradise island of Trinidad.
Highways, bi-ways and other roads are already flooding. People are turning back. Reports are coming out of the capital that water is rising. No doubt rivers will over flow once again because of the rubbish that people dump into them during the dry season. Houses will be flooded out if not swept away. Household appliances, furniture and personal assets will be destroyed because developers have been allowed to cut down the rain forests which allows water to gush down into the valleys and take control of peoples' lives.
It's the same story year in, year out and once again the government has not put things in to place to stop this stupidity. They are too busy building things that are of no benefit to the man in the street.
People will hold their heads in their hands, bawl and cry as they watch the water containing dirt, soil, vermin and the strong possibility of disease flowing into their homes. they are the lucky ones. Some homes are washed away.
These people will still vote for the ruling party which does into seem to understand that it is a government elected by the people for the people.
The above photograph was taken last year and I strongly suspect that by 2.00pm today we could be in the same boat! Perhaps we should have boats and kayaks for hire on the side of all major roads.
Didn't islanders used to build their houses on poles? I never could understand the outrage here in the states when to get government aid to rebuild after floods they started demanding the homes be rebuilt on pylons or stilts or at a minimum higher ground.
ReplyDeleteThe French in New Orleans knew better than to build on the lowlands. Their picking the high ground saved lots of the town.
I had friends that lived on the coast of Florida and never even considered that their ground floor was 13 feet below surge tide.
Our town is built between two rivers and when they both flooded the area was naturally covered. The Maori whose home it was knew this and could pack up easily their settlements and move to their hill forts whenever the rivers rose. Then the white man came and in his wisdom thought "this place is good we will build a town where the rivers meet and so he did. The town suffered severe flooding nearly every year thereafter. In 1964 was "The BIG one" I remember it well. Afterwards flood banks were built to hold back the swollen rivers and these have worked very well BUT...they the height of them has to be incresed every 10 years or so.
ReplyDeleteI do hope you are Ok. Let us all know please.
ReplyDeleteI was in a big flood myself -- a 100 year flood, watching cars swirl down the street with police officers adn forming a human chain to grab stranded drivers out of chest high waters. It was something else. After the water susided I will never forget the smell of rot adn allthe littel fruit flies everywhere for ages. Ugh.
I hope you are well and have not had much damage with the floods. Unfortunately politicians keep on making a large number of pre-election promises that are soon forgotten once they get elected. Our ex-prime minister was a good one in justifying himself by saying that the promises he didn't keep were "non-core promises"!
ReplyDeleteAh, Bea, I think about you so often. The floods are indeed terrible. The government will never rectify this situation unless they are affected personally. Actually, they should have their elections during the rainy season and then they might feel the pinch.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are faring well, my friend.