Kingston koker collapses under spring tide

Mar 13, 2013 News

– Logs, boulders and sand bags used to minimize effect of breach
A koker located on Water Street, Kingston, collapsed under a rising spring tide yesterday, and the abrupt flooding resulted in a great deal of losses for residents who had electrical appliances and furniture in their lower flats, since water rushed into yards and homes, particularly in the immediate environs.

The damaged koker door at Kingston.

Officials at the scene noted that the flood warning was in effect for several areas in Georgetown.
President Donald Ramotar who visited the scene acknowledged there would be flooding in the area; however, he hoped that before the next spring tide, works would have already been done to secure and prevent the water from causing such damage again.
“I will be going around the city to visit flooded areas; to see the severity of the flood. But I know everyone including the Ministry of Works, contractors and engineers will be looking to see what they can do to try to block the water and as soon as the tide goes down, we will be able to block it, to prevent it from happening a second time.”
Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn, who was at the scene, said that the second highest spring tide (3.11 metres) caused the koker door to collapse at 16:30 hrs yesterday. “What we are hoping to do is minimise the risk of further flooding, and wait until the tide recedes. But we will be placing stop logs along the slots of the koker, boulders and sand bags to prevent a recurrence of any flooding.”
Acting Town Clerk Carol Sooba said “since I took office I have been consistently visiting all of them (kokers) I found out lots of things were not right. I raised it with the subject Minister who had to intervene to give me instructions, because the council didn’t give me permission to sign cheques to procure materials. However, we have in our possession materials to repair all the koker doors,”
Adding that she never expected the koker door to collapse, Sooba stated “We are fixing all of the kokers under the city council’s mandate. I think there is some excessive high tide which we were warned about and we were trying to put systems in place so if it came as per normal we would have been able to deal with it. We will collaborate with the Ministry of Works and different agencies to do work.”
Many residents at the scene criticised the authorities for their negligence in maintaining the koker, since it is widely know that Kingston is an area prone to floods and all aspects of securing the koker and proper drainage should have been maintained.
“Before they spend money on the Marriott Hotel up the road they should spend money on the kokers and do them properly,” one woman lamented.
Residents in the area who returned from work were unable to get into their homes as the water rushed into the street and yards flooding the carriageways.
“Three times before this happened and residents were given no compensation, this is just disgusting! No one takes blame for anything, we visit city council office and we are dismissed, these people are just sick,” one woman exclaimed.
Several trucks traversed the area with sand, timber and workers as the Public Works Ministry officials tried to place timber strips in place along the slots of the koker and sand bags to create a buffer to minimise further inundation.
A barge with a long reach hydraulic excavator also assisted in securing the timber in the koker slots.