Strangroen is a tiny community in Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara. Its handful of families have a total of 25 members, most of whom are grown and are employed in the rice fields or at Rayaadul Rice Industries in the village.
The name Strangroen is of Dutch origin and loosely translates to beach green but why it was named so, no one knows for sure.
Because it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on one side, Strangroen was one of several communities that was flooded owing to the breaking of the sea dam on Saturday last in Rebecca’s Rust, eight villages away after the coming of the spring tide. Not only did residents have the Atlantic in their front yards, but some of the creatures that call the ocean home were trapped there also.
Bus driver Mohan Tilack was at home. He lives with his wife and son in a bottom flat as they are caretakers of the property belonging to a relative abroad. The man should have been at work, but he was needed at home to fortify their doors with sandbags and assist his wife in cleaning their flooded home.
The Tilacks have been living in Strangroen for 21 years after returning from Suriname. Tilack was originally from East Berbice, and his wife was from West Coast Demerara. They migrated to Jarikaba, Suriname in 1979 and they worked there in the banana fields. He explained that they decided to leave during the black-market time under the Burnham regime. Then prior to the 1992 general elections, Cheddi Jagan had visited Suriname and promised that if he was the next president, things would be better. Not sure if that was true, the Tilacks, a family of five by then, did not return immediately.