It does not bode will with the rainy season looming.

The recent flooding in Gill’s Terrace, Speightstown, St Peter, can be directly blamed on the Drainage Dept. I travel through the Whim frequently and I remarked to a passenger in my vehicle, only a few days ago, that the next big rain fall will cause problems in Speightstown. Since Tomas, the trenches in the Whim gulley, have been blocked by tons and tons of debris and no-one seemed interested in clearing it. All that was needed is an excavator and a few trucks to remove the stuff blocking the free flow of water but I guess no-one saw it or maybe no-one cared. The Drainage Dept MUST be more pro-active, since the weather recently have been very unusual and also Barbados is due a bad hurricane season, we only have a few months before the season starts and maybe this is a warning of what is to come.

The poor planning by Town Planning in allowing construction in flood prone areas was wrong but it has happened already, it is now up to the Drainage Dept to find an alternative method of resolving some of the problems. In the case of the Speightstown flooding, damns were dug up stream, like in Sailor’s gully, that is doing a good job in slowing do the rapid flow of water through the Whim gully; a similar thing needs to be done in Warleigh’s gully. Even without that, the trenches within the Whim gully MUST be kept clean at all times to prevent the blockage of water hence causing the water to spread. I still think that not enough preventative measures are used to stop flooding. In St.Philip, there are trenches that are blocked for years by trees some now as tall as twenty feet, sometime ago a tractor from the Drainage Dept started to clear one of the trenches but the tractor broke down, after it was repared, I understand that the time for clearing the area had pass so they are on to another area, meantime the old trees are much taller and the area that was started is getting bushy again. There is the old proverb ” a stitch in time saves nine”, it is better to spend a few dollars clearing those trenches now than much more dollars to rectify the problems by not clearing them. Let’s be reminded that the hurricane season is just around the corner and the weather is very unpredictable

Pray you never experience a slow-moving wet category 3. Please impress on the authorities to even put some trenches on the sides of the roads. The weather patterns are changing in this region. Ask us in the Leewards about that.

Black Milk
I was watching the evening news on Ch 8 and I saw an interview with “Arthur’s opponnent” as he was discribed. However, I didn’t expect to see an interview with Mr Arthur since it appears, there is a ban on senior members from the BLP appearing on TV8> Remember, this is a nutural station but their tail is showing more ow that general elections are drawing near. I want the DLP to observe the level of interest the BLP is generating recently. This could be a sign that the tide is changing, in a matter of days/weeks Mia and Owen would kiss and make up but there is still some underlying problems within the DLP that has P.M Stuart unable to name a Deputy even after over six months in the leadership position

Close Gills Terrace nuh! What will it take?So many floods and yet no solutions!Oh Well! Same ole same ole………

Scout,
DLP CBC’s coverage of the flooding on Tuesday night was so joky, it was even funny. Michelle Arthur declared that the representative was in the area for most of the morning but had to leave for a meeting. If she knew he was there, you mean to tell me she could not at least have a quote from him as the duly elected representative as we know they would not carry his face or voice. But the DLP candidate could have ten minutes saying what??? He is a waste of time.

The huge following at BLP branch meetings have them running scared!

As long as it rains heavily in Barbados there will be flooding somewhere on the Island.

Clearing drains,gullies and suck-wells will help but torrential downpours will still cause flooding.
This is why it is important for the Drainage unit to be proactive.

I see signs of dictatorship developing within the DLP, I’ve heard of persons with no political attachment who are being refused contracts now because they got work from the BLP. This should not be, every bajan who qualify by being capable of performing well should be given work irrespective of which party they voted for in the last elections. Many workers are being victimised because they spoke out against the mothod of allocation of construction contracts; this shows political immaturity

@islandgal: “Scout do you realize that it rained nonstop for 14 hrs, heavy rain it was. That amount of rain didn’t fall during Tomas.

Only because we were lucky.

Will we always rely on luck?

@Island gal Mr. Worme in a letter to the Nation Newspaper has indicated that the quote that BL&P was ready for a tsunami was taken out of context.

I can’t remember the exact edition but I am sure David will be able to find it.

My sympathies go out to the people living in Gills Terrace. I lived there back in 90’s and experienced flooding. The water was up to the dash board in my car. I was lucky and not at home at the time. My husband was not so lucky and was almost washed away, when water swept through the house. I would not wish the experience of flooding on my worst enemy.

One good thing that came out of the flood was that I learnt or was refreshed about the value of life and how it can not be replaced whilst possessions can (apart from photos etc).

I had thought that the new waterway that was constructed around the time Chefette moved into the area had solved the problem, as I had not heard about flooding in that area for awhile, so I am not surprised to hear that it was blockages in the gullies that had caused this problem.

As other bloggers have said we’ve had our warning, yet people still drop litter out of cars etc. which could cause the drains to block.

So I agree yes the gullies have to be cleared. I agree yes that more funding should be put towards prevention of flooding. I agree yes Town & Country Planning need to be aware of possible flooding caused by construction.

But if we continue to drop litter or dump stuff around the place all the work or money spent by the relevant authorities is wasted. So we all need to do our part and stop the littering.