In the wee hours of Sunday morning this week, amid heavy rain and high winds, an Ite Palm tree fell on Buffer Dam, North-East La Penitence smashing a small one-bedroom home, killing a five-year-old girl and bringing untold grief to her family and relatives.
When a tree falls in the midst of a storm and causes damage or death it can be said to be a natural disaster. When, however, the impending danger from that tree is known, complaints and pleas are made to the authorities and nothing is done, it constitutes negligence and deserves the highest condemnation.
The Mayor and City Council (M&CC), is, of course, the agency responsible. And with unerring predictability, it mouthed the usual platitudes on Monday about being saddened by the death of Tomecia Hackett, and launching an investigation. If the city collected one dollar for every investigation it launched, it just might be able to balance its budget. And if it was given another dollar for each time one of its officials opened his/her mouth and spewed nonsense, it would be prosperous indeed.
Why an investigation would be needed with regard to the tree that fell on the Hacketts’ home is a mystery. Or is it? The tree, like so many others around the city, was compromised; reports were made; nothing was done; so it fell and killed a young child. Perhaps what needs to be investigated is why the M&CC’s Public Relations Officer Royston King felt the need to give that pat response in addition to the other (usual) pat response “City Hall has no money,” and why the M&CC was only “saddened“ and not apologetic.
After citing a similar incident last year, in which there was no loss of life, King further told this newspaper that the M&CC intends to have inspections of trees done and the ones which pose a danger will be removed. One cannot help but wonder if an investigation was launched after last November’s tree crash, what it revealed and why inspections of trees were not done since then.
Buffer Dam, where the Hacketts and several other families live, is probably called that because the dam was built to act as a buffer for the North-East La Penitence community. It is, therefore, a reserve and obviously, anyone living there is unauthorized to do so. Nevertheless, they are citizens of Georgetown and human beings and deserve the same consideration as any other city resident.
Indeed, perhaps they deserve more, since it is hard to imagine that anyone would choose to spend seven years raising children in a one-bedroom shack on Buffer Dam if a viable alternative were available. Junior Hackett, the father of the dead child revealed that he had made several unsuccessful attempts to obtain a house lot. Yet, there are persons who have managed to acquire more than one. In fact, at a ‘One Stop Shop’ held in late September, at Lusignan, Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali announced that his ministry was going to publish lists of house lot recipients for scrutiny because it had discovered that persons were fraudulently acquiring more than one lot.
Meantime, when one considers that for the whole of last week garbage was not collected in several wards in the city, King’s promise to expedite tree inspections, along with trimming dead branches and cutting down dying trees, rings empty. King had acknowledged too that a number of citizens had complained about the condition of some trees around Georgetown and the council was “trying its best” to resolve this issue. He noted that the M&CC had placed signs on some of the dangerous trees in order to warn motorists who park under or near them. This newspaper has seen the ‘Park here at your own risk’ signs, but wonders what type of warning would be issued to persons whose businesses or homes are under or near dead and dying trees.
The M&CC needs to demonstrate awareness that there are hundreds of trees on reserves and along public thoroughfares in the city that can be deemed a danger to life, limb and property because they are either dead or dying or have huge overhanging limbs which have not been trimmed in years. Trees have a well-deserved place in our environment; they help provide oxygen, shade and add aesthetic beauty. The state of neglect of the trees in Georgetown is just as big an environmental no-no as the cutting of trees in our rainforest. Something needs to be done and quickly.
