Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 08/Oct 05:00

Tornado wrecks houses in west Trinidad

The convergence of a low-level trough and daytime heating caused the formation of a weak tornado which tore roofs off and damaged houses in Westmoorings and Victoria Gardens at noon on October 7, traumatising residents who were home at the time. Videos posted on social media of the tornado moving through the area showed roofing sheets circulating like confetti, dancing through the air above the area. The tornado then moved into the Gulf of Paria and became a visible waterspout. Later videos of the affected areas showed torn off roofs lying in the road, crumpled roofs and other structures. The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) said homes in Cherry Crescent, St Anthony’s Drive, Rowland Road and Western Circular in Westmoorings were affected. It said approximately 150-200 homes were affected by power outages in the area. [caption id="attachment_1183068" align="alignnone" width="1024"] People leave with their belongings after this house on Cherry Crescent, Westmoorings was badly damaged by a tornado on Tuesday.[/caption] When Newsday visited Cherry Crescent, there were broken trees, crumpled roofing structures, broken pieces of wood, entire roofs and other debris in the street. Residents were walking around assisting each other to clear up debris, dismantling roofs and covering their residences with tarpaulins. As Newsday was leaving, a light drizzle began to fall from overcast skies. While residents declined to speak to the media, one resident posted on Facebook that immediately after her son alerted her to the tornado, electricity and WiFi went. “I looked out my window and there were loads of debris swirling in the sky. Swirling! Then came the rain, thunder and lightning. I was so scared the roof would come off. The howling was scary!” Diego Martin West MP Hans Des Vignes, speaking to the media at Cherry Crescent approximately two hours after the incident, said areas in Carenage and La Puerta were also affected. He said the community had reached out to the relevant agencies. He said his office would be doing what it could to assist residents in remedying the situation. “It is a tragic event. Thankfully there was no loss of life in this situation. For now, it is really helping residents get back to some form of normalcy. As with any citizen anywhere in the world, if your roof is blown off, it is somewhat of a life-changing event, you have to make a lot of adjustments. “Some of the people who lost their roofs, they actually have kids, so it’s moving around their family to say which relative will sleep where tonight, and those sorts of things. We will do our best, we will look at what grants and so on are available for people in these situations and hopefully residents can have access to those grants and repair their properties.” [caption id="attachment_1183069" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A house which suffered major damaghe to its roof after a tornado touched down in several areas in Westmoorings on Tuesday. [/caption] Des Vignes said engineers from the Borough Corporation would be visiting the area to assess and make recommendations to residents on ways to weatherproof their homes. As residents began dismantling the roofs lying in the road, Rural Development and Local Government minister Khadijah Ameen said in addition to roofs being partially or completely blown off, tree branches and other debris had fallen on top of and damaged roofs. She said she was grateful there had been no injuries. “It’s a very traumatic situation for the families, many of whom had someone at home at the time. Because of the heavy rainfall, what you see is a lot of soaked furniture, appliances, carpet and a lot of water, so they have flooding they are dealing with. “Many of these families have already contacted people who would attend to their roofs. Some of them have indicated that they do have insurance that could cover some of these things. Some of them may immediately need tarpaulins from us, some of them have already covered their homes to protect their furniture. We very likely may have more rain and because of that, I would advise all families to secure their belongings so you will not have further water damage from the rain.” Ameen said while the area fell under the Diego Martin Regional Corporation, she had directed other corporations to assist in data collection. [caption id="attachment_1183070" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Rural Development and Local Government Minister Khadijah Ameen speaks with reporters at ground zero in Cherry Crescent, Westmoorings on Tuesday. At right is Minister in the Ministry of Housing Phillip Edward Alexander.[/caption] “We directed neighbouring corporations to help collect names and contact information from each family, the type and extent of the damage, if they have any damaged household items and appliances, and so on. They will do that assessment.” The Diego Martin Borough Corporation said that 18 tarpaulins were distributed to people in the area. The ODPM said among the agencies that responded to the disaster were the Diego Martin Borough Corporation, the Port of Spain City Corporation, the San Juan/Laventille City Corporation, the fire service, the 1st Engineer Battalion of the army, the TT Electricity Commission and the municipal police service. It said heavy equipment from the TT regiment and the Rural Development and Local Government Ministry, including two backhoes and dump trucks, were deployed. Brace for more bad weather Meteorologist Gary Benjamin said the Meteorological Service had predicted the thunderstorm conditions in a five-day forecast last week. He said it was the combination of those conditions and the daytime heating which caused the tornado. “Having thunderstorm activity is a regular occurrence, especially when we have moisture in the atmosphere. The thunderstorms were pretty strong in the areas where they occurred, and whenever we have those strong thunderstorms or bad weather type over the Gulf of Paria, the waters of TT, we usually have some waterspouts being formed out of it over the gulf and the water in the area.” [caption id="attachment_1183071" align="alignnone" width="1024"] These people use blue tarpaulin to cover the top of this house which lost its roof to a tornado in Cherry Crescent, Westmoorings on Tuesday. [/caption] He explained that tornadoes and waterspouts are different names for the same weather phenomenon. “Now waterspouts are like weaker tornadoes over the water, sometimes depending on the movement of the individual thunderstorm activity, the waterspouts could continue or remain offshore, and some could form on land or come in from offshore, and whenever the funnel clouds touch down on land, they are tornadoes and when they touch down over the sea, they are waterspouts. So what happened today, we had a couple waterspouts over the sea and we had at least one tornado over western areas.” “Tornadoes are a regular occurrence in TT but they are much weaker than what you would see in temperate countries like the US and North America. That is what we have come to know tornadoes are, but we do in fact have tornadoes, and the type of damage the wind tornadoes over us have done today, you could imagine how much stronger they could be.” Other events that happened on October 7 related to rainfall included flooding along Old Bay Road, Maracas, and Tucker Valley Road, Chaguaramas. Benjamin said while this event was not related to the formation of Tropical Storm Jerry to the north/northwest of TT, weather systems above the country would be destabilised later this week. “It would destabilise our wind fields and because air and moisture is going to be pulled from the south and southeast, it could cause some increase in convergence over TT. Therefore isolated thunderstorm activity is likely to occur and the strength of it could rely on the amount of heating we get and the moisture. So within the next few days as the tropical cyclone passes, at least within Thursday we’re going to get some weather for TT, Thursday, Friday, and maybe some on Saturday.” ( With reporting by JELANI BECKLES)   The post Tornado wrecks houses in west Trinidad appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.