100 Linden families affected, million$ lost …as storm pummel township

Aug 25, 2019 News

Torrential rainfall Friday afternoon swamped Republic Avenue and other areas across Linden, and neighbouring communities.

Trees were uprooted and power lines came down, it was reported.

A woman stands in the Linden flood waters on Friday.

According to reports, the rains came with heavy winds which ripped rooftops, sending scores of zinc sheets flying, with residents in hot pursuit to retrieve them.
Among the buildings that lost part of the roof was the Mackenzie High School.
Central Mackenzie suffered severe flooding, with key business places on Republic Avenue receiving the brunt of the flood waters.
According to a release from the Regional Democratic Council 10, residents from Moblissa to Blue Berry Hill and other communities around Linden, were affected by the sudden storm, which ripped through roofs and walls.
Regional Chairman, Renis Morian, said that a team is currently assessing the extent of damage, which he estimates will be in the “vicinity of millions”.
“This was a big storm and it has left many residents with …damaged homes, we are therefore seeking assistance at the RDC, so that we can render needed assistance to several families.
The damage is severe, and I figure that it will be in the vicinity of millions, so we are seeking assistance to help some 100 families, who would have been severely affected.”
Among the materials needed urgently are zinc sheets, food hampers and cleaning supplies.
According to the release, an emergency council meeting will be held to deal with the issue.
Morian said that the collective damage is beyond the capacity of the region.
He pointed out that most of the damage to homes was seen on Blue Berry Hill, but added that there was also significant damage in Victory Valley as well.
“In the Valley, some people would have lost pig pens after trees fell on them, but the good news is, that one sawmill owner has committed to supplying some building materials to help these persons rebuild.”
Environmentalist, Samuel Wright, has blamed the flooding also on indiscriminate dumping of garbage, which clogged drains.
“This is a wake-up call to residents to stop littering.”
Meanwhile, on the Wismar shore, residents suffered mostly damaged roofs with the power going off after posts fell.
Officials at the Linden Utility Services Coop Society Limited (LUSCSL) reported two damaged transformers.
Several power poles also had to be replaced.
“We worked until about midnight last night (Friday) to restore power after poles went down in Wisroc,” supervisor and Operations Manager (ag) Berkley Joseph told this newspaper.
Joseph said that work had to be resumed early yesterday morning, and continued throughout the day, as LUSCSL workers battled valiantly, to ensure residents receive power.
Traffic was also affected, after a huge mango tree fell across the main access road to Blue Berry Hill.
As a result, motorists had to detour and use the longer route, through the Wismar Housing Scheme.
The situation, however, improved somewhat after residents removed the tree.
One Mackenzie resident was convinced that the sudden storm was the worst.
“This is terrible…it is the worst that I’ve seen. There was water everywhere on Republic Avenue and vendors were scrambling to save their goods.”
While the woman acknowledged that the storm was an act of nature, and thus could not be avoided, she quipped: “What this tells us is that we need to stop littering, people have to stop dumping garbage all over the place, because when it rains we will suffer the consequences when the garbage clogs the drains.”
Only recently, Wright engaged several youths in Linden, in a program geared to help them better understand and care for the environment.
Known as the Linden Conservation Corps, the youths involved in the program, focused on the creeks and waterways, in Wismar, with special attention to Victory Valley, a community that has over three hundred springs, and is home to the famous Watanabo Creek.
The youths who were drawn from Secondary Schools across Linden, last week graduated after a gruelling few weeks of activities.

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