The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

A RESIDENT of Sir Lynden Pindling Estates told The Tribune yesterday he couldn’t leave his home as his car had been partially submerged by the flood waters yesterday.

“Our entire street is flooded,” he said. “The water is at least three-feet high at its deepest point. I can’t leave my home, my car is partially summered and I don’t want to risk moving it. I don’t even know if it starts.”

He said he was shocked and awed yesterday morning when he awoke and saw the status of his yard and street.

However, he said his street has drains that are working to drain the water, albeit slowly.

“We have this massive drain on the street but because its such a large accumulation of water, it’s taking the drain a while to drain the water,” he said.

Cheryl Lam, who lives on Sapphire Ridge Road off Prince Charles Drive, said she was unable to leave her home and reported as much as five-feet of water in some areas.

“My car was under four feet of water. I can’t even cry; of course something will be wrong with the car,” she said. “I can’t get to work. I’m at the mercy of my boss. One of my neighbours had rain at chest high. It’s a two storey house and the rain covered five steps.

“This was the worst flood I’ve experienced since 1989. The problem is that when they fixed the road all those years ago they covered up the cave, the bottomless pit that would drain the water. The government needs to bring the cave back.”

A Seabreeze resident said: “I’ve been living in this house for more than 30 years. In that time we’ve never seen flooding that bad. Not even in the worst hurricane.

“There’s water in the yard, it’s a little higher than shin-deep. Thankfully the house is elevated so we were safe, inside. We just couldn’t get out.”

The resident said neighbours do have a theory as to what might have contributed to the flooding.

“The new Prince Charles Drive has disrupted the Seabreeze ecosystem,” she said. “Thus leading to flooding in areas that never used to experience flooding before.”

Another resident who lives off Prince Charles Drive, Theo Hutcheson, said although he didn’t experience flooding in his home, the surrounding areas did collect a lot of water.

“When I saw the water, I was like, ‘wow - how am I going to get to work. I had to catch a ride with someone with a SUV because my car is too low.”

Residents living in the east also report that newspaper delivery was stalled, yesterday, due to the heavy flooding. The delivery driver, Elma Knowles, experienced severe flooding at her house. Her car was also flooded by the rain.