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PARTS OF HOPE CREEK UNDER WATER ... AGAIN |
Fourteen
days into the new year...residents of Hope Creek
village in the Stann Creek district are tonight
having eerie flashbacks of a nightmare they endured
the middle of last year. Flood waters are again
making life miserable for hundreds of villagers.
This morning, Love News traveled to the village to
see what the residents are going through and here is
what we found.
PATRICK JONES
REPORTING
This is how
residents of the new area of Hope Creek village
found themselves having to get around this morning.
Ankle deep water by the time Love News arrived in
the community today. But residents tell us that the
flooding started just after midnight and at its
peak, the water was several feet high. And with
memories of last June still fresh in everyone's
mind, residents are keeping a wary eye on the skies
and watching the ground to see how the water
behaves.
Lorenza Trejo
– Hope Creek Resident
"Hmnn, well we
noh sleep. Because what we have the first of June or
the second of June dah never nothing nice. We get a
big, big flood. Dah noh like this one. This one here
we have it like six times for the year. Dah noh the
first time we the go through this. We get it six
times for the year and we noh get no headway. We
always the ask for please help with the drainage,
you know, like clean the drain or do better drainage
and we never get no answer."
Maria Escobar
- Hope Creek Resident
"Well it’s
affecting us because the kids can’t get to school,
and this bad." What I have to do is I am going to my
mom, because the children, they are afraid since the
flood, the first time. So when she wake up this
morning she was crying. She say she don't want to
stay here."
It's a dilemma
that parents have to face. And today, many children
did not go to school. Those who did had to wade
through dirty water and one parent told Love News,
she chose to keep her children at home for health
reasons.
Lorenza Trejo
– Hope Creek Resident
"I never send
my two this morning because of the water. Because
this water always contaminated because of the
latrines. So I never send my two this morning. So
maybe some gone dah school ina the water and some
never did gone. I noh send mines because I noh want
mines get sick."
And the stress
level on the collective lives on the residents of
this community is running high. Ofelia Chen is the
wife of the village chairman and with exasperation
in her voice, made a passionate public plea for
help.
Ofelia
Chen - Hope Creek Resident
"Well the
flood is affecting we right now because when it
rains the water full up all underneath our houses.
And I have an old lady who lives in a little room
downstairs. And she can’t stay right there. I have
to put her upstairs everyday because I have my
little house a bit high. So like now, we need help
with this drainage. Because that dah all the time,
every year with the drainage, we tired of asking.
Looks like nobody want to listen to we. Sometimes I
sit down, I say I wish I could go talk to the prime
minster; but maybe he noh wah listen to me because
we need to go in a group. Because now, my husband
the really try to do, he is the chairman. But now he
the try ask for mek they at least send a bulldozer
or a back hoe to clean the drain. But now they say
that right now the back hoe is not good. And it
looks like they are not listening. And when you tell
Mr. Hulse, he noh want to listen. He noh want listen
to you; but he allright. He the sleep in his bed,
warm. But we the punish right here. All this block
here, sir, I noh will tell you no lie it only need
dorey to come out, because all underneath the house
full up of water."
And in the
case of Candida Jimmenez, the water is at least six
inches deep inside her house. This single mother
told Love News that when she woke up this morning
her feet went straight into the water.
Candida
Jimmenez - Hope Creek Resident
"Well it
affect me from one o’ clock this morning. From one
o’ clock the water gone in my house and I can't do
better than this because we tired of telling them to
fix the drain and they never fix the drain. And
every year I deh ina water. Every year i deh ina the
water, We deh like duck, Duck ina the water, aha."
And speaking
of livestock, one family lost a sizeable amount of
their backyard stock this morning.
Rosalia Burgos
– Hope Creek Resident
"Well it
affect a lot because most, like the chicken they
dead out especially like this morning when we did
not know that it was flooding. The young chicks them
died. All of them, like almost forty of them because
my little brother, he had a lot of them. Only the
big ones are alive right now."
Q: Now this
started flooding this morning you said?
Yes sir. Well
I woke up like 4:30 then I saw the water was already
over the bridge."
The
flooding of this part of the village is nothing new;
but residents say their appeal for help has
apparently fallen on deaf ears.
Lorenza Trejo
- Hope Creek Resident
"Well, every
time we have flood and everybody have to evacuate
like go to our friends and neighbors which are on
higher ground. And I think everybody done get tired
of this; because any time it rains we have to go
through this. And all of our neighbors done tired of
this you hear everybody have comments about it. Like
we noh have no headway for this village."
Ofelia Chen -
Hope Creek Resident
"That's why we
get tired of it. We need help even this week or
tomorrow to start drain this because we get enough
of this. Because this poor lady right there, oh my
God, from when she built her house all the time she
stand like duck ina water. Nobody want to listen to
she and she noh got nobody to help her. She does not
have a husband to help her. And now she really need,
she do wah lee job right now. And how much money is
she getting? Lee bit of money. And she can’t finish
her house because lee bit of money. That is why we
need now the minister to try help she with her
house. We really need it. Not only she but her
neighbors too."
Jimmenez
says she is not asking for much ...
Candida
Jimmenez - Hope Creek Resident
"Well I will
need a house but look like they don’t want to help
me with the house, so I am trying to build my own.
And right now I really need for my flooring right
now. I really, really need help right now."
PJ: Will you
move out of your house, or will you stay?
No I will stay
right there in the water. Me noh like go with my
daughter them. Me noh like go with them. I already
stay in my house, stay in the water. Thank God I noh
get sick. I noh get sick."
Lorenza Trejo
- Hope Creek Resident
"I seh if Mr.
Hulse or Mr. Turo Roches can't do nothing, mek Mr
Dean Barrow please listen to we right here dah Hope
Creek. We really, really need help. to the back of
Hope Creek area, I the ask in conjunction with all
of my neighbors who have asked me to talk for them
because they say the ministers them right here noh
the listen to we, so we the ask Mr Dean Barrow, the
prime minister to please help, with the area, to let
him come and look at it then maybe like that he will
get courage and do something."
Late this
evening our News Centre tried to contact Minister
Hulse but our attempts have been unsuccessful.