One ve­hi­cle was swept away and an­oth­er stalled in ris­ing flood­wa­ters along the San Fer­nan­do By­pass yes­ter­day, with fire of­fi­cers res­cu­ing one of the dri­vers.

The burst riv­er banks at the San Fer­nan­do By­pass forced two mo­torists to flee their ve­hi­cles, as the Vista­bel­la Riv­er swelled and pushed ve­hi­cles off the road­way.

As the wa­ter rose, it trapped one ve­hi­cle and pushed the oth­er off the road­way, be­fore it be­came lodged be­tween a slab of con­crete and a WASA main line.

Short­ly af­ter noon, the show­ers came, as did dis­tress calls about waist-high wa­ter from res­i­dents in Co­coyea, Gas­par­il­lo, Scott Street, San Fer­nan­do, and part of Mara­bel­la.

Fire of­fi­cers were at the scene at the San Fer­nan­do By­pass, where Myr­tle Ben­jamin and Tim­o­thy Mo­hammed got trapped in their ve­hi­cle as they drove through the wa­ters and ex­pe­ri­enced the scare.

Ben­jamin had to be hand-lift­ed out of her sil­ver-grey Hyundai sev­en-seater ve­hi­cle, while Mo­hammed said he walked out of his black Sun­ny B13 when the wa­ter lev­el rose and forced him to come to a sud­den stop.

Mo­hammed said he was go­ing to con­duct busi­ness in Mara­bel­la.

He said he lived in Mara­bel­la for a year but had nev­er ex­pe­ri­enced such an or­deal.

“I was com­ing from Siparia af­ter 12 to go to TECU. It had cars com­ing through and the wa­ter was push­ing oth­er cars on­to my car. So, I park my car in the road and I come out,” Mo­hammed said.

He said he called a wreck­er to re­move his ve­hi­cle.

Co­coyea/Tarou­ba coun­cil­lor Tere­sa Lynch vis­it­ed the Tarou­ba area and at­trib­uted cli­mate change as the cause for many in­stances of flash flood­ing. She said sev­er­al ar­eas were af­fect­ed in less than 30 min­utes. Lynch said she would send a let­ter to the Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan to ad­dress in­fra­struc­tur­al works to the wa­ter­course in the area.

“The flash flood­ing was un­prece­dent­ed. I can’t tell you when last we had the banks over­flow­ing on the by-pass, we don’t nor­mal­ly have this.”

The coun­cil­lor urged mo­torists to avoid flood­wa­ters.

“To all mo­torists, it is not worth the risk,” Lynch said.

Just last week (Au­gust 25), An­nan Boysie lost his life while at­tempt­ing to dri­ve his Isuzu D-Max pick­up through flood­wa­ters. Boysie’s ve­hi­cle was washed in­to the riv­er along the M1 Ring Road in St Madeleine, where he drowned.

Yes­ter­day, one res­i­dent in St Joseph Vil­lage blamed the re­cent surge of com­mu­ni­ty de­vel­op­ment at Tarou­ba, Tar­o­dale and South Park for the flood­ing.

The man, who asked for anonymi­ty, said: “In the last two weeks, the area was hit four times. What hap­pen when they de­vel­oped Tarou­ba, Tar­o­dale, and South Park, they did not widen the wa­ter cours­es. So, them nar­row, nar­row chan­nel is long ago thing. All that wa­ter can­not pass through them lit­tle cylin­ders. The ar­eas are pop­u­lat­ed and is more peo­ple now.”

Ac­cord­ing to the Of­fice of the Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment, res­i­den­tial flood­ing along the Sir Solomon Hock­ey High­way caused the link road to the San Fer­nan­do By­pass to back up, caus­ing the banks of the Vista­bel­la Riv­er to burst.

Parts of the west­ern coastal ar­eas of Trinidad al­so ex­pe­ri­enced flood­ing fol­low­ing a mid-af­ter­noon show­er. The com­mu­ni­ties of Cou­va, Grand Cou­va and Arou­ca were af­fect­ed.

Want FREE access to all our content? Sign up HERE!

From left, Radio commercial manager Tova Satnarine with members of her team (front row) SKY 99.5 FM brand manager Asha St Bernard (Back Row), Sangeet 106.1 FM brand manager Daniella Ali, VIBE CT105 FM’s Norman Chuckaree, SLAM 100.5FM radio personality DJ Dani, 95.1FM radio personality DJ Brad, Sangeet 106.1FM account executive Tasha Bhagarathi and SLAM 100.5 FM account executive Afiya James during the T&T Guardian’s 105th anniversary staff celebration.

From left, Radio commercial manager Tova Satnarine with members of her team (front row) SKY 99.5 FM brand manager Asha St Bernard (Back Row), Sangeet 106.1 FM brand manager Daniella Ali, VIBE CT105 FM’s Norman Chuckaree, SLAM 100.5FM radio personality DJ Dani, 95.1FM radio personality DJ Brad, Sangeet 106.1FM account executive Tasha Bhagarathi and SLAM 100.5 FM account executive Afiya James during the T&T Guardian’s 105th anniversary staff celebration.

Children doing their homework and studying.

Children doing their homework and studying.

Designer - Stacey Weekes-Benjamin, Diane Carlton Caribbean. Photography by: TANGE Studios

Designer - Stacey Weekes-Benjamin, Diane Carlton Caribbean. Photography by: TANGE Studios

Guardian Media is the premier provider of multimedia solutions and authoritative insight on news, politics, business, finance, sports, and current affairs. Our brand portfolio includes CNC3, Guardian, TBC Radio Network and The Big Board Company.

Send us an e-mail here or call us at +1-(868)-225-4465