25 years after - the Peter O'Connor column

Twenty five years have past and we seemed to have learned nothing. Today (December 5) is the twenty fifth anniversary of the flooding which cut Trinidad in half in 1985 and prevented all north-south traffic movement for several days.

And that great flood was not the result of an exceptionally heavy and sudden rainfall which overwhelmed the drainage systems. 

The flooding came from several days of moderately heavy rainfall, and because the drains of this country had not been cleaned since Independence in 1962, the waters just rose and rose in the Caroni Plain and all other low lying areas until the roads were all covered and cars stayed stuck on the highways for several days.

I remember it well, and I remember how the water rose slowly over the country. 

English Club Arsenal was here, to play TT in one match at the “National” Stadium on Monday December 2. But incessant rain caused the match to be postponed, and then postponed again. Eventually it was rescheduled to be played on the afternoon of Wednesday 4—the day they were due to fly out on the BWIA late evening flight to London. 

But that was also the afternoon of the day when Arsenal had been invited South to have lunch with the event sponsor, who had financed their trip here. That was Dr Aleem Mohammed of SM Jaleel Ltd. Jaleel had sponsored several youth and senior team matches for TT in those days, and they have remained good friends of football, including being an early sponsor of the 2006 Journey to Germany.

Because they now had a match scheduled after the lunch, only the team management and about four players made the trip south by car, and I was one of the drivers. 

On the return we were blocked near Charlieville by the flood waters. We went back to the Chaguanas Police Station and called then Major Ralph Brown who sent two helicopters to pick us up at Carlsen Field. (My car was stuck at Carlsen Field for five days following!)

The helicopters took us to Chaguaramas and then we drove to the Stadium to join the match already in progress. Immediately after the match, a police escort rushed Arsenal to Piarco from where they returned to England. 

The escort was necessary because traffic had already “backed up” from the flooding in Central. By the next morning the Churchill Roosevelt Highway was also under water and east-west traffic was confined to portions of the EMR.

The rains had stopped, but the country remained submerged because all the drains and rivers were blocked. Five days later we drove through water to get to Carlsen Field to collect my car. Eventually, the waters drained away. 

The hapless PNM government declared that it was all an Act of God. Opposition politician, the fiery John Humphrey declared that the flooding “was an Act of Damned Foolishness”. A year later he was able to prove his statement.

In 1986, Prime Minister George Chambers, having wasted all of our income of the oil boom, wrote to the IMF, asking them to come and rescue TT’s economy.

Then he surrendered the 1986 General Election and took the PNM into near oblivion. However, the new NAR had to deal with the IMF already invited in by the PNM. And the NAR took the blame for all of the sins of the PNM— except the flooding. 

Humphrey, as Minister of Works established a Task Force to end the flooding, and this was successful. There was no flooding for the next few years, but the cleaning of drains and rivers was never repeated, not even now, and we have flooding all over the place again.

Over the past few years, the incidents of flooding have become more regular and more intense. Colm Imbert and the PNM declared these to be “Acts of God,” and we all seemed to be too afraid of God or Colm to refute this nonsense, and everyone just kept quiet.

But in 2010 we got a new Minister of Works, an “action man” who said he would fix the flooding, and everyone is crawling out with ideas, including that we hire them, to stop the flooding. 

Have they “lost God”, or is this a sign that they always knew Colm was ineffective and incompetent, and that nothing would be done, and they feel that Jack will “do something”.

But let me tell you, once again, what is the first, and maybe the only thing that needs to be done: Clear the drains; Clear the drains; clear the drains.

Apology: In my column of 21st November, I stated that UNC used wiretapping to arrest Dole Chadee. Chadee was actually arrested in 1994, under the PNM government, but was tried, convicted and executed under the UNC.