The Guyana Flood Website 

  Report for Thursday, February 3rd, 2005

We received reports of constant flooding of villages on the West Bank of Demerara so I decided to pay a visit the Canal #2 village to see the situation there. The houses at the very front of the Canal # 2 seemed dry but as I went further into the village, more and more flooded out yards appeared. The 7 miles of almost straight road ended at the Canal # 2 Conservancy. The water was just inches away from the top of the dam when I got there at 9am. The dam of the conservancy is some 12 feet higher than the land below. I was told by villagers that normally the water in the conservancy is about 20 feet deep but for the last 3 weeks, the water has risen some extra 10 feet. Residents in the areas about 2 weeks ago had sandbagged the dam when the water had started to rise, had they not done this, the water would have flowed over the dam and would have flooded out the 2 thousand homes in the area. If the conservancy dam was ever to break, the countless trillions gallons of water presently in the Conservancy would quickly cover most of the houses in that area. Canal #2 is no place to live if you can only afford to build a one flat house. Farmers complained of losing all of their crops. The canal #2 conservancy dam needs to be raised at least about 3 feet more in the very near future to prevent a catastrophe from happening.

After I left the West Bank, I traveled up the East Coast to visit the flooded out villages to see if there was any drop in the floodwater level. Time seems to have stopped on the East Coast, the villages looks exactly how I left them 2 days ago. Turkeyen, Cummings Lodge, Industry and Ogle are no longer flooded. From the East Coast Highway, Better Hope South and North appears to be draining off.

From Atlantic Gardens all the way to Haslinton, the floodwater did not appear to have dropped off much, Annandale, Buxton, Vigilance, Strathspey, Enterprise, Melanie, Bachelors Adventure, Foulis, Enmore were still totally flooded out, the floodwater in these villages have not dropped off much if any at all.

As I was passing Bachelors Adventure, Villagers of Bare Root invited me to see the situation inside of their village, I left my car on the Embankment road and was taken for a boat ride. The water in most part of Bare Root was some 2 to 3 feet and there are some parts that have water up to some 5 feet. Bare Root is about 1 mile in from the Embankment Highway behind Bachelors Adventure and seems to be a village forgotten by everyone. For a villager to go in or out, he or she must wait on the few boats in the area to bring them out or attempt walking out the one mile of floodwater covered road. Villagers complained that they have received very little relief supplies, they told me that the government sent in a vehicle just once with hampers. I asked if the Red Cross had visited them and they claimed that a number of homes were not given any relief because there were not enough hampers in the Red Cross vehicle to supply all the homes in the village.

There are hundreds of cows, chickens, ducks and dogs all of which appeared sick to me and they were dwelling in the same water as the villagers. I am appealing for help for the villages of Bachelors Adventure and Bare Root. During my trip today, I saw no medical teams on the entire Embankment Highway. As I traveled along the Embankment road, I saw plenty of dead cows and donkeys lining the road. There was a vehicle with a loudhailer announcing all types of irrelevant information that any six year old child already knows, maybe instead of wasting gasoline driving around, they should be picking up the dead animals off the road instead.

I saw one truck moving some garbage from around the Montrose area, why are we wasting time, we have thousands of trucks in this country, stop waiting for more charity and pay the truck owners to move the filthy germ infested garbage if you have to. We have featured a dead donkey on the Plaisance road for the last 3 days, I saw it there still this afternoon, it has now almost totally decomposed and again today I heard the radio telling people that they have started to move such carcasses off of the road. Stop talking and do what has to be done.

As the days go by, I am becoming more convinced that the Government simply cannot handle this crisis, it is just too much for them to handle on their own. The Americans must be approached for assistance, let them send in the storm pumps that they have that are capable of pumping some 18000 gallons of water per minute, we are wasting time and endangering everyone on the entire East Coast attempting to move the trillions of gallions of floodwater with those tired old tractor driven pumps.

Today I listened to 98.1 as they were broadcasting a  function held at the Umana Yana and got the impression from everyone who spoke that this flood was over, hey wake up you people, visit the areas that we have been highlighting for the last three weeks and see the suffering of the people before you get all dressed up to make long boring speeches.  The state radio had adopted a new slogan for the flood, "Recuperate and rebuild" how can you talk of rebuilding when half of the East Coast is still under 3 feet of floodwater. Bryan Mackintosh

Heading over the Demerara Harbour Bridge	The road into Bagotville, WCD	Entering Canal #2	Flooded out yards in Canal #2 WCD	Flooded out yards in Canal #2 WCD
A real old time country style shop on wheels	The Canal #2 Conservancy	Sandbags had to be used to keep the water from overtopping the dam	This shed is usable when the conservancy level is normal	The workers were heading up to do private work
Major Mike Charles on a surveillance mission	The top of the dam is some 14 feet higher than the land below	This Guy fell and broke his hand when the village was flooded out a few days ago	Back in Georgetown. This is the Lama canal that supplies shelter belt with water for Georgetown	This is the Lama canal that supplies shelter belt with water for Georgetown
Cleaning the trench at Montrose	The Chato Margot road was dry	GTT's BV exchange shows the wear and tear of the flooding	Still having to face the floodwater to get out	IEL compound still flooded out
In this sea of floodwater, only boats will get you home	The water is just inches away from the East Coast highway	Approaching the Village of Buxton	The Church of God worship house in Buxton	The infamous "Church of God " road in Buxton
Flooded yards in Buxton	Medical bus at Strathspey	More water on the East Coast	This brave lady faces the floodwater in	This cow got cramp and when Suresh left it alone for a while, dogs attacked it
Enterprise main road still unusable	Houses in Enterprise still under floodwaters	House in Enterprise north	Houses in Enterprise still under floodwaters	Cow carcass burnt and left on the road
Entering Melanie on the East Coast	Desmond Greene cleaning the drain in front of his house	The adventure of her life	Girls heading into the dirty water to get home	The boat that took me deep into Beirut
This cow gives us an idea of just how bad things are in Bare Root	Flooded yards in Bare Root	Goats and Sheep lifted to a higher platform	The one mile into Bare Root	My Bare Root friends paddling us inland
Anything for the hungry? this kid asked	Pressure on this poor donkey	This will tell how high the water is	This Rastaman was just sailing past minding his own "Iness" (Business)	More water than the eye can see in Bare Root
Three weeks and still no drop in the water level	Enough to drive one crazy	Water and more water fro three weeks now	Picking up passengers along the way	These kids still believe that this stink water is good to play in
This seems to be the only dry land in the village, at least 20 dead animals are on this dam	This guy best depicts the battered village of Bare root	Bare Root man taking his sibling home	Can you imagine walking in here at night?	Some braved the dirty water
On our way back out of Bare root/ Bachelors Adventure	I have never seen a dog go into water on his own before	This is how the embankment looks from the inside of Bachelors Adventure	Taking this tree branch to feed his sheep in Bare Root	This is one of the sick looking cows that I mentioned earlier
Enterprise village still under 2 feet of floodwater	Pigs and boats side by side	Animals on the road at Foulis	Water filled houses in Foulis	A dead cow on the embankment road at Foulis
Enmore was as flooded as the other villages	Boating in Enmore	Bull horning useless information	Annandale with as much water as before	Annandale North
Making sure that the little one does not get wet	Speedrite Auto Spares still closed for business	Annandale residents killing some time at the road head.	This boat was still sailing after 2 1/2 weeks	We feature this house once more to show that the water level is still as high as ever
Happy Acres, not so happy after 2 1/2 weeks of flooding	The Better Hope Presbyterian Church still flooded out	Better Hope North	Plaisance cemetery still flooded out	Can you believe that this is the same donkey that I showed you twice before just outside of Plaisance