VENDORS in the River Bus Stand say it takes less than an hour of rain for the City terminal to be flooded. So imagine the state of the stand after the deluge on Sunday and Monday when the vendors turned up to do business.They were met by floodwaters knee-high.
“On Monday I had to push off water and mud. When it gets bad, the water comes into the stalls,” said Rouse’s Place owner Anthony Rouse, as he pointed to bricks upon which the stall stood.
Rouse said he had to invest in a special piece of equipment designed to move water.
The water was calf-high on Sunday when Kerry-Ann Yearwood showed up for work, and when she returned on Monday, she said, there was a lot of muck.
“The rain don’t even have to fall for an hour before here gets flooded. We have to deal with mud [making] our goods dirty; it is terrible for us,” she said.
Yearwood, the owner of Blossoms Boutique, said there was only “a small hole” that led to the nearby river, so she had to do much sweeping to get rid of the water.
Sharon Richards, who operates a food stall, said she often had to pack up and go home when it rained. She was about to leave when the DAILY NATION team spoke to her. It had again begun to rain, and she was taking no chances.
“On Tuesday, here was a real mess. When in here gets full of water, you can’t sell nothing,” Richards said.
Fruit vendor Andrew Coppin agreed River Road was unsanitary on Tuesday. He said he had to scrub down his area prior to selling anything, adding there needed to be a better drainage system in the area.
Nelroy Caldron of the Get Money stall said he had to fetch his sign after floodwaters carried it away. He added that he normally had to borrow a broom and do “real sweeping” when the rains came.
The situation was slightly different for Ulandra McVane. As she operates farther away from where the water normally rises, it did not affect her business directly. However, it did pose a problem when she wanted to leave.
“When I have to move from here, the water is sometimes too high to drive through, so I have to wait – sometimes a good while for it to go down. Out there is too low, I would like to see this problem solved,” she said. (CA)
