The Guyana Flood Website 

  Report for Tuesday, February 1st, 2005

After hearing rumours that the village of Mahaica was flooded, we decided to pay them a visit. With my faithful Panasonic FZ1 camera fully charged, we set off on the 25 miles journey to see for ourselves and to bring the photos that always tell the truth.

 We left our base at Turkeyen located a stone's throw away from the village of Cummings Lodge, both communities are a lot drier today since most of the floodwater has been pumped out of these lower East Coast communities. As we journeyed further up the Coast, we passed alongside villages completely flooded with dark black water. The water level in some of these areas had dropped off quite a bit but many remained almost as flooded as when we first saw them at the beginning of this miserable flood.

Buxton still had a lot of water and most if not all of the single and bottom flats were still covered with water. We passed on the highway outside of Enterprise and there was still a lot of floodwater there, the water level had gone down just a few inches but not enough for persons to return to their bottom flats. Annandale south and north appeared just as flooded as ever, the fences showed that the water had dropped off just about 10 inches. We saw persons travelling in boats coming out of many parts of this flooded village. The floodwater in Melanie has dropped off about 12 inches but there is still some 18 inches of water further inland away from the main road.

We reached Mahaica at about 3pm and were pleasantly surprised to see that this area was not flooded as persons had been telling us, some yards on the main road showed that there had been some amount of water there a while ago. We drove into the back of Mahaica in search flooded out homes but we only found a couple of houses with about 6 inches of water in their yards.

 Someone asked today why is it that some villages are more flooded than others, the answer is simple, some 200 years ago, when the Dutch and the British designed the drainage system on the East Coast, they  divided the different villages into sections and each section was given its own drainage system which was made up of canals and kokers. Because the entire East Coast lies some 6 feet below the Atlantic Ocean, kokers were designed to open when the tide was out and close when the tide came back in. Over the last forty years since the British left, many of these kokers were neglected and many became dysfunctional. Maybe the authorities will finally understand that regular maintenance of the waterways and kokers is absolutely necessary and cannot be taken lightly.

The water level at Turkeyen as our flood marker gate shows	The scene looking east of out Turkeyen	Second street Cummings Lodge	This makeshift bridge was level with the floodwater just a few days ago	Industry residents can now go in without using boats
This puppy checks out the action below	There is till a good bit of water on the lower East Coast	Industry North was flooded just a few days ago	The Ogle Masjid was a lot drier today	The Ogle ground was still under water
Furniture damaged during the flood was too soaked to use anymore.	This pontoon that was used as a temporary shelter at Chateau Margo is now deserted	This bridge is still needed at Lusignan	This bus could not venture in any further	Speedrite Auto Spares still flooded out today
Boats was still the number one method of transportation today	Villagers of Buxton heading home in this boat	A side road in Buxton still flooded	Strathspey residents lining up for hampers	Sheik assists in giving out hampers to residents
Parts of this East Coast village road was still flooded	Getting the smiles out once more at Melanie	East Coast village still flooded out
Paradise main road was a bit drier today	Sheik hands over sari curry at this kitchen on the Haslinton road	Sheik hands over more Sari curry	The Golden Grove Methodist Church now drying out	A Golden grove road a lot drier today
Former Pres Forbes Burnham Belfield house	Heading up to Mahaica	Sheik check the level of the trench at Bee Hive, Mahaica	Shiv Chanderpaul's house at Unity Mahaica seemed dry	Children of Mahaica  coming home from school
The new Mahaica Bridge was being worked on	Roadside market at Mahaica	The Mahaica market was dry when we visited	This house in Mahaica had some water in the yard	This Mahaica resident about to go into her partly flooded yard
Mahaica	Mahaica	Mahaica Creek		Enmore North still under water
Dark cold water to deal with for the last 17 days	this decorative pots and concrete blocks business at Melanie still flooded out	Sheik hands over Sari Curry to this kitchen at Melanie	Looking south into Melanie	The Melanie cinema now a lumber yard was flooded out
Pumps at Strathspey belting out tons of water into this canal which takes it to the Atlantic	A side road going north into Buxton to the seawalls	Buxton house still flooded out	This shop at Buxton provided a dry place for many to	Annandale was still under water this afternoon
Mon Repos north	Mon Repos	The water has dropped very little here at Lusignan	A Lusignan house in deep water this afternoon
These latrines were under water at Lusignan	Floodwater was still the order of the day in Lusignan	A boat sailing under this El Dorado sign
An East Coast village still flooded	This shelter was built to keep these animals safe from the rain		The cinema at Good Hope still in a sea of water	This shed at Good Hope provided a dry place to hangout
Even with the world of water in her home, we still managed to get her to smile.	We showed this flooded out home 2 days ago, still under water today	IEL workshop at Good Hope was was till flooded out	Enjoy a boat ride, being pushed by the wife	The house of Mahesh "the Track Bully" flooded out in Mon Repos
Sheik chats with the sponsors of the BM Soat/ H.N Tony kitchen at Montrose.	TV personality Rasheed "RY" Yassen showing footage of the flooding	Yours truly Bryan Max having late lunch at the BM Soat/HN Tony kitchen	Fireside cooked meals for anyone on the East Coast	Boxes of food waiting delivery at the BM Soat/HN Tony kitchen
Happy Acres was still flooded out today	Starlite Drive-in under water today	Atlantic Gardens was just a little less flooded today	Taking something home for the little one	A Better Hope road still under water
Better Hope South was a lot drier when was passed this afternoon	The dead donkey that we donated to City Hall was still here today	This State House dead donkey was setting  the stage for more disease to spread	Villagers in Industry cleaning the drains	The main road that connects Industry to Ogle was quite dry today