Candidate for St Michael South-East, Undene Whittaker, pointing to a blocked canal in the flood-prone Lower Burney, St Michael district.

by JULIE WILSON

TORRENTS OF RAIN imprisoned scores of Barbadians in their homes as flash floods swept across Barbados on Tuesday night.

From Checker Hall in St Lucy to Lower Burney in St Michael, the story was the same – water, water everywhere.

For residents in Lower Burney, the heavy rains created misery, especially those in Citrus Avenue.

One resident who was hardest hit was Harriet Layne whose $30 000 Toyota Corolla was flooded and had to be pushed to the safety of a neighbour's yard just yards away, Unfortunately, the damage was already done as now the car will not start.

The despondent woman said she was unsure of her next move.

"This car was my life; I do not even know where to turn," she said sombrely.

Political hopeful Undene Whittaker, who is contesting the St Michael South-East seat on a Democratic Labour Party ticket, visited the area to lend her support to the frustrated residents.

While there, she showed a DAILY NATION team a canal that was overgrown with bush and tall trees.

She lambasted the Government for neglecting the needs of the residents and for its tardiness in cleaning the wells and the canal in the area.

Whittaker said flooding in the area was an ongoing problem and questioned whether or not Government undertook a study of the area before sub-dividing lots for sale.

"People continue to live under tremendous discomfort when there is rain, and for months I have been asking that it be cleared. It continues to be filled with brush that causes the water to remain so that when it rains, it floods out and the water overflows the banks and goes under all the cellars of these two avenues.

"There is something fundamentally wrong with the drainage system. There are 30-something wells in the area yet there continues to be massive flooding whenever it rains," she emphasised.

Another resident agreed with Whittaker and blamed poor drainage in the area as the source of the flooding.

"It is because of the drainage that the area was being flooded out all the time. Sometimes people who live out here would try to help clean the drainage but it is not a sure thing that you would do every day," she said.

Whittaker said some residents were so discouraged by the persistent flooding that they were in the process of cancelling the deal to secure their lots in the area.

She appealed to the relevant authorities to look into the people's plight.