Close to 12 inches of water swamped households at Stanleytown, West Bank Demerara during yesterday morning’s high tide after the koker attendant failed to show up to close the doors.
Region Three Chairman Ayube Inshan told Stabroek News that approximately 60 households were affected. He said most families suffered damage to appliances and furnishings and were left with a big clean-up task.
He stated that the water level varied in the community based on topography.
According to Inshan, the regional authority has made representation to the Civil Defence Commission for cleaning and sanitising hampers to be distributed to affected households.
Residents explained to Stabroek News that they were awakened at around 2.30 am by persons in the village announcing that they were being flooded.
Most persons told Stabroek News that by time they got up, their entire yards were overtaken by water and it quickly entered bottom flats. The flooding affected persons mainly on the public road as it was the closest to the seawall.
Shop owner Dexroy Ponnell reacting to the flood said “Water come in here without any warning.”
Ponnell, who is well known in the village as `Orphie’ and `Rasta-man’, related that his losses are close to half a million dollars as many of the food items were contaminated by the water.
The man, who lives several feet behind his shop, yesterday said that he was surprised at the damage he suffered.
“This flood left me with a lot of losses and gone affect me real bad. It come without any warning man, we didn’t had any idea to know we will be flooded. When my neighbour call me and said flood, I said wah! By time I get to the shop, water all over and things floating…” he related, still in disbelief.
The shop owner said that during the rain over the last two months despite being flooded, it was not as severe as this. He stated that right after the water receded from the land, he backfilled his yard with three loads of dirt and during yesterday’s flooding the entire land was still covered.
Ponnell said he operates the largest shop in the village and sells any item one would need.
“A lot of losses, a lot, everything soak up in the flood, rice, flour, sugar all soak up. The water get in contact with the kerosene and that get into the shop and contaminate a whole set of foodstuff that cannot be used anymore… It is still unbelievable to me that this happen,” he stated.
Nonetheless, he expressed gratitude to his neighbours who assisted him in moving items to his bridge, which was the highest part of his premises.
Meanwhile, Shelia Alfred told this newspaper that she was awakened at around 4.15 am by a phone call from a friend asking if she was flooded.
The woman stated that upon checking she observed her yard and plants covered by water from the river. Alfred explained that while she was not severely impacted by the flooding she had to dedicate her time during the course of the day to cleaning up.
“Chunks of mud were all over so we had to spend the day cleaning up… it was a lot of work… I don’t know how much of my plants will survive but the flood had covered a lot of the plants,” she explained.
Several persons rendered assistance in returning a turtle to the river. The turtle was brought on land by the high tide. A video seen on Facebook by this newspaper showed that the villagers placed the turtle in a wheel barrow and transported it across the wall. From there it made its way back into the Demerara River.
