The Tribune

TUESDAY night’s storm turned Camperdown Riding Club’s stables and show ring into a four-foot deep lake. By 10 am yesterday the water level had dropped about a foot, but shortly before 2pm as volunteers hooked up pumps to pump the water into nearby shallow caves, the sky darkened and a light rain started to fall.

The club houses 25 horses, which stood chest high in water on Tuesday night until their evacuation started at about 7 o’clock yesterday morning to nearby stables. These neighbouring stables on Camperdown Drive, although covered with pockets of water, had less flooding than the Riding Club across the road on Wild Tamarind Drive.

At about 11 o’clock on Tuesday night Robyn Ogilvie and a friend spent the night at the stables with the horses. At about 7am, seven of the horses remained in their stables on higher ground at the club, while the other 18, whose stables were located lower down, were distributed between three neighbouring stables.

Many people came out to assist in the moving of the horses and the club said it was grateful to all of them.

All of the horses’ feed is wet. The club has had to make arrangements to have more hay and bedding delivered today.

At about 1:30pm yesterday a private pumping company arrived to start pumping water from the eastern end of Camperdown Drive, which had been blocked off to traffic by residents who had used a barrel and tree limbs to close its passage.

Further down in the water submerged area, several cars were parked hood-high in water.

A pump was also hooked up to the Riding Club’s ring to pump the water into shallow recesses on nearby land.