The Guyana Flood Website report for May 22nd 2007

September 11th 2008: It does not take much for the city of Georgetown to flood these days, any 15 minutes of decent rain bring instant despair to most city residents. In the five photos below which were taken on September 11th 2008, after 10 minutes of rainfall Leopold Street was already under water. Why is this so? Well other than the choked up gutters filled with discarded plastic bags, bottles and good old fashion garbage thrown carelessly and maybe intentionally by illiterate, hard ears residents, what is really adding to the flooding woes of the city is the fact that the water level in these drainage gutters are being kept too high. In the old days, gutters in the city were kept bone dry. As a child I used to actually run in the concrete gutter in front of my Grandmother's house located at Curtis and James Street, Albouystown. This very gutter is now filled with at least 12 inches of muddy slush and quickly overflows the instant rain falls. The City Council of Georgetown must keep the level of the Sussex Street canal at a lower level as this is where the gutters of Albouystown flows into. A lower level for the Sussex street canal equals bone dry gutters in Albouystown equals more catchment area when the rain comes, life is simple if you make it simple, don't you think?? I wonder if the idiots, sorry I meant Engine-nears, at city hall ever figured this out?? I doubt it very much.


Leopold street under water after 10 minutes of rain	Leopold St looking west			Imagine how nasty it is for these sanitation workers to have to work in such dirty appalling conditions?

August 20th 2008, Carifesta hurry up: With their paymasters busy preparing for Carifesta, some contractors are taking the lack of supervision to mean that they can rob taxpayers and the country at large by doing totally shoddy work. Here we can clearly see that the contractor who was given the Turkeyen canal to clean is certainly not doing what he was paid top dollars to do, the work has been abandoned midway and after just 4 days the weed has already started to retake ownership of the canal. One would have thought that a much larger excavator would have been used to carry out this job due to the simple fact that the width of the canal exceeds the full extension of this miniature excavator that was being used. Hopefully someone in authority will read this post and ensure that proper work is done by this contractor.


The photos above clearly show the poor work being done to the Turkeyen canal. Photos taken on August 17th & 20th.

Photos below taken around Georgetown on Monday March 10th 2008

Leopold street	Cummings street	Cummings and Croal streets	Cummings and Regent streets

A homeless street dweller had to pack his bed up high to keep it from getting wet	Church and Cummings Streets	Crown street Queenstown	Gus DaSilva enjoying a free bottom wash along Crown street

Photos taken around Georgetown on December 14th 2007. It has been days of light and at times heavy rainfall along the coastal strip and inland locations around Guyana, we are at the point where serious flooding can easily happen once the rain continues in this manner. The land is soaked and cold. Even though the authorities especially our useless and redundant Georgetown City Council knew that this type of weather was imminent, we are yet hearing that a number of pumps are not working and are in need of repairs. It is as if these people get great pleasure in seeing their fellow Guyanese suffer. There is no doubt that this useless city council has long outlived it's usefulness but because of the petty politics of Guyana, we are forced live at the mercy of these incompetent nitwits whose only goal is to fill their pockets as much as they can. Maybe one day the people of this country will say enough is enough and elect people who are capable of managing the city and country instead of voting along the ethnic lines which we all know has brought us nothing but misery for the last 40 odd years.

Middle Street

Carmichael street

Quamina Street

The Avenue of the Republic canal at the verge of overflowing

Don Gomes still finding the will to raise his Guyana flag

even though his optical business is totally flooded out

A street in Sophia

The University of Guyana cold and soggy

This potholed road alongside UG is actually a new road build since the 2005 flood.

November 24th 2007. The Atlantic Ocean was in it's full glory along the coastal strip of Guyana today. Huge waves crashed into and over the seawalls as residents watched on in awe. Deep inside everyone there is that ever increasing fear that someday those very powerful waves just might break down the fragile barrier that separate us from the Atlantic Ocean. Most of Guyana's coastland lies some six feet below the level of the Atlantic, today it looked as if we were a lot lower than just six feet, it truly seemed a lot more as those huge waves smashed themselves into the tiny concrete wall that we commonly refer to as the Georgetown seawalls. Should we not be trying to push back the sea as the Dutch did so many years ago? With all of the rocks that we have in our hinterland, maybe we should think of throwing a few over the wall to boost up our chances against the unforgiving Atlantic Ocean? You see no one ever told the Atlantic that it should not come over to where we are. You can find earlier photos taken of the seawall under attack from the mighty Atlantic at this link> Click here for link

Can you make out the level of the ocean and where the land is below?

In this photo, you get to see how high the level of the Atlantic is above the roof of the white car parked on the Seawall road

This wall is about 14 feet above the level of the land and the water still crashes over it, hmmmmm

Tons and tons of shells that the ocean brought up gives the impression of picture perfect beach setting

Vehicles splashing through the water that came over the loose concrete blocks that are supposed to be the sea defense at the UG road junction

Here you can see where the actual seawall ends and where just a few loose rocks were placed to create a sea defense to keep out the mighty Atlantic. Maybe the Dutch and the British forgot to do this piece where they were here donkey years ago??

This is the width of the seawall in the vicinity of the UG road junction. Just about a foot and a half of concrete separates us from zillions of gallons of ocean water

The waves recede leaving tons of shells to form the beach makeup

Then crashed back in to bring in even more shells. Over this tiny concrete wall lies the city of Georgetown. I wonder how many of her residents realise just how much their lives depend on the strength of this tiny wall?

A pictorial report for August 23rd 2007

Photos taken on August 23rd 2007 around the capital city of Georgetown. This was the result of uncaring and lackadaisical koker operators who simply were not at their posts to open the main drainage outlets which resulted in a waterlogged Georgetown. The coastland of Guyana lies some six feet below sea level which means that when the tide is high, the kokers must be closed during that period as such what ever rainfall occurs during that period can only be drained later when the tide is low. In modern countries they use high volume 80,000 gallons per minute pumps to assist in with their drainage but apparently Guyana is too poor as a nation to afford at least twelve such pumps which would certainly move a considerable amount of water off the land until the kokers can be opened.

I'm sure that if we place two high volume pumps at the Princess Street koker area and two more high volume pumps at the Sussex Street koker area and two more at the John Fernandes area, we would have a whole lot less water around Georgetown when ever we have heavy rainfall. But who am I to tell these smart people who run our city anything after all they were voted in by the people who had complete confidence in them to manage the city effectively.

The photos below were taken with a small camera that I carry around in my car so pardon their poor quality.


Carmichael and Quamina Streets	Just across from Bishop's High School	St George's Cathedral up ahead	This fella slipped into the gutter	Looking up Middle St towards main st

Quamina St	Just over Robb St along Alexander St	The Esso service station on Regent St	Mrs. Mendonca of MARICS taking the flooding in stride.	King St just before Charlotte St

King St heading toward Regent St	Garbage waiting to be picked up	King St at the junction with Regent St	Looking up Regent St	Braving the nasty water at Charlotte and King Streets

Outside Maraj building on Charlotte St	Sandbags to keep the water out at Sharon's Building at Charlotte and King Sts	Shanta's Puri shop at Camp and New market Streets	The Shell Service station at Camp and New market Streets	Nothing to do but wait for the water to go away

ladies wading through the nasty water along New Market St	Just outside of the Georgetown Public Hospital	Crown street Queenstown	Colin Chan out for a watery ride through the city	Crown street Queenstown

4x4's creating a rush of waves along Crown Street in Queenstown	Belair roundabout, one of Georgetown most prestigious neighborhoods suffer this way every time there is rainfall, light or heavy		Turn left and you will be on Sheriff street	Late in the afternoon and the water was still as much as ever at Charlotte and King Streets

A letter to the Guyana Flood Website from a distressed resident of North Ruimveldt.

Dear Mr. Mackintosh,

We need help in North Ruimveldt. I've decided to send these pictures to you, they were taken on the 13th of June, 2007 at the last entrance to North Ruimveldt and Aubrey Barker Street which borders North Ruimveldt and South Ruimveldt Park.

It is appalling to know we are living in the capital city of this country and yet we are being flooded year after
years. The child in the picture on his graduation day had to wade through dirty polluted water to get to his school, this flooding has been occurring all his primary school life in South Ruimveldt Park.

I do not know who to appeal to, whether the Mayor and City Councilors or the President of Guyana, to address the flooding in this area. It is unhealthy for us the citizens of this area to continue to live like this. We are the working class people of this country but no one seems to care about our welfare.

Thank you for your time.
B. Persaud

Threatening Flood conditions in Lethem, Region Nine

Lethem update 19th July 2007: Intense rainfall in this mountainous region has again resulted in serious flooding in Lethem and surrounding areas. The Takatu River is once more at an all time high and parts of Lethem are under water. Residents fear that the situation will get worse. Emergency food supplies are being sent to the affected areas by relatives and groups from Georgetown to assist residents of this hard hit community. We are expecting new photos from this flood zone shortly.

02.06.2007: Residents of Lethem in Region nine are fearful of a repeat of the flooding that devastated this border community just a few months ago. Lethem is bordered by Brazil to the south and Venezuela to the west. Heavy rainfall mostly in these two neighboring countries has resulted in the Tataku River overflowing it's banks. Sections of the roadway in Lethem are under water as the ten photos below indicate. We will be keeping an eye on the situation in Lethem and will post additional photos as we get them.


Lethem

The photos above were sent to us by Mr. Daniel Gajie, head of the Chamber of Commerce of Lethem 02.06.2007

The plight of the residents of Belair Springs (June 4th 2007)

Every time there is a downpour of rain, Belair Springs becomes flooded with a foot and more of dirty water that takes days to drain off because of a clogged up main canal that lies directly at the back of this residential area. Today was no exception as close to a foot of flood water was evident when we passed by this afternoon. Residents have been calling on the Georgetown City Council for years to remedy this miserable situation. Residents claim that a totally clogged up drainage canal which lies directly east of them is the sole reason for the constant flooding of their community. "Every time it rain, my home is flooded", one distressed resident told us. "If the City Council spend a few hours to dig out the years of buildup out of that canal, we will get instant relief, you can actually walk across the canal because of how clogged up it is" she told us.

The canal is question is connected directly to the clogged up forty foot main drainage canal that we have featured on this website for the last two years, this main artery has not been cleared or de-silted in over 20 years and is now totally over taken with grass, weeds and mud. Surely if we are serious about preventing another serious flood in this country, such a main waterway should have been cleared and kept in proper working condition after the flooding in 2005. No wonder residents are so terrified every time the rain comes.


This is how Belair Springs looks every time there are heavy showers	One of the many diplomatic houses in this area.

	You can see the totally clogged up canal which is located at the end of this road.	This is an earlier shot of the clogged up canal which is the main reason for the flooding in Belair Springs

Photos taken around Belair Springs this afternoon, Monday June 4th 2007.

Report for May 30th 2007

Thank Heavens that the rain has somewhat eased off from the Coastland and around Georgetown for the last six days or so, otherwise we would have been under about 40 feet of water by now. We experienced heavy showers on the 22nd of May and within a few hours parts of Georgetown became submerged under a foot of water and in some areas a bit more. The lackadaisical attitude of pump attendants attached to the Georgetown City Council added to the woes of city residents when they refused to open the kokers quickly enough to allow for the buildup of water to drain in the the Demerara River.

Here on the East Coast, heavy rainfall for about five hours on the 22nd of May left a buildup of water that took almost four days to drain off. This was enough to terrify residents into believing that a repeat of the floods of 2005 was very much possible even though they have been assured by the National Drainage Board that millions of dollars was spent on the cleaning of canals. Had the rain continued on May 23rd, we surely would have had a repeat of 2005 since the pumps and kokers seem unable to flush the water off the land in a timely enough manner. The only reason there is not massive flooding presently here on the East Coast can only be attributed to the mercy of God himself. God must have looked down and truly felt sorry for Guyanese and decided to hold back the rainfall.

Report for Tuesday May 22nd 2007