BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – Heavy rains, accompanied by the deafening roars of thunder and crackling sounds of lightning, swept across St. Kitts and Nevis on Monday night (Jul. 19) into Tuesday morning and caused flash flooding in some low-lying areas.
The rain, which began early Monday morning, continued intermittently throughout the day and increased its intensity in the night, leaving in its trail impassable roadways and water-logged homes, as well as silt-covered yards and driveways of some residents.
The heavy rainfall had also led to an island-wide power outage that lasted until Tuesday evening in some areas, disruption in LIME’s fixed line, mobile, internet and data services, and damage to a section of the southern wall of the Warner Park Cricket Stadium.
SKNVibes walked around certain sections of Basseterre and found that the Bay Road, between College Street and West Bourne Ghauts, were filled with silt and vehicular traffic had to be redirected to Central Street.
Also visible was one badly damaged vehicle resting under the overhead bridge on the Bay Road, while another was seen further out on the beach leading to the Caribbean Sea. These vehicles were reported parked on College Street Ghaut. Two more vehicles that were parked on West Bourne Ghaut also suffered minor damages.
Also during this media house’s brief walk-through of Basseterre, employees of the Ministry of Works were busily working on clearing the silt and debris deposited on the Bay Road and surrounding areas. However, by mid-afternoon, the roadways were passable to vehicular traffic although signs of the deposits were still visible.
Reports reaching SKNVibes indicated that certain sections in the Old Road and Halfway Tree areas were also affected by the flash flood. One vehicle was stuck in silt along the road leading to the Old Road Police Station, while the driveways and yards of a number of homes in both areas were covered with silt.
Some residents claimed that during the rainy season, water would normally flow from the hills but not in the quantity they experienced on Tuesday night and Monday morning.
They are of the view that the increase in water flow was caused by the removal of vegetation on the hills by employees of the Ministry of Works, during the construction of dirt pathways in that area. They are also calling on the authorities to rectify the situation because “this can cause serious repercussions should a hurricane hit St. Kitts”.
Some residents of Ponds Estate were also affected. Many of them informed SKNVibes that their yards were flooded and lots of water had entered their homes. And in Dieppe Bay, one individual said that some residents of Dieppe Bay Project, including her family, had to wade through knee-high water within their homes.
The woman stated that six families were affected and flooding of the area began shortly before 5:p.m. on Monday. She claimed that whenever the rain falls heavily, they would normally experience some degree of difficulty in the area but it was manageable. She added that since the construction of homes started a short distance from where they reside, the flow of water from the mountain has increased. She however stated that the water had abated yesterday after the authorities had sent a backhoe, which dug a hole and drained the water off the land.
Meanwhile, another affected area was Sol Gas Station situated at the junction of Cayon Street and Victoria Road in Basseterre.
Yesterday morning, three customers went to purchase gas and found that their vehicles could have only been driven for a short distance before stalling. On investigating, the drivers found that the gas contained water.
Senior management was immediately informed and the three customers were provided rented vehicles until the contaminated gas was extracted from their vehicles.
One of the vehicle owners told this media house that it was explained to them that due to flooding of the area, water had seeped into one of the underground gas containers.
Reports reaching this media house state that the thunderstorm, which had produced over four inches of rain, was due to three tropical waves that had entered the region with no warning to the Federation’s Meteorological Office. However, there were no reported cases of injuries to life or limb.
