APPROXIMATELY 250 households in the Werk-En-Rust, Georgetown area were affected, on Sunday, by early morning flooding that resulted from a damaged koker door during high tide.
The damaged koker was repaired shortly after the tide receded, and the affected households were able to begin cleaning. Representatives from the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) and the Georgetown Municipality have since visited the area.
Preparedness and Response Manager of CDC, Captain Salim October, spoke with the Guyana Chronicle.
“The Princes Street koker was damaged, and, as a result of high tide, the lands in that area would’ve been inundated…because of the unusual high tide period we were experiencing a back log of water, so they had to wait until the tide go out before they could’ve repaired the koker, which has since been repaired by City Council,” Captain October explained.

Captain October said that, from reports thus far, none of the households has sustained any substantial damage to property or appliances, and the CDC is collaborating with the municipality to assist residents with their cleaning.
“We haven’t had any reports of articles being damaged but we would have had about 200 households with water in their home. We will be working through the municipality to help deliver cleaning hampers to the affected residents to help them to clean up and return to normalcy,” Captain October told this newspaper.
October said he was not briefed on the cause of the damage to the koker; calls to Mayor of Georgetown, Ubraj Narine, by this newspaper, proved futile.
Residents from Leopold Street were among some of those who sustained most of the flooding. They recall the incident occurring at around 03:00hrs; the water began to recede at around 08:30hrs.

Security and Maintenance Officer of the Trinity Methodist Church, Terrence Gibson, said he was surprised when he awoke and found there was flooding, as there was no heavy rainfall prior.

“I get up around about 03:00hrs and I saw the water and then I came into the office to pick up all the electrical things and I went over to the church to check and did the same thing. We didn’t have any much rain,” Gibson told this newspaper.
Gibson relayed that the water receded just in time for him to be able to clean up the church so that their 09:00hrs Palm Sunday service could be held. However, he noted that the church’s administrative building suffered the brunt of the damage and it would be some time before he would be able to get all of the water out.
“Around about 08:30hrs the water started to move down so we went in and clean out the church early o’ clock and they had the service. The church didn’t have as

much water as the office. But in the office, all over the building got water, around four inches of water. When I finished looking after the church I came and started bailing here,” Gibson recounted.
Also on Leopold Street, Cindy Melville, owner of Cindy and Culwin Corner Shop, said she too was surprised by the flooding. The mother of three is grateful that none of the items in her store was damaged.
“It was a bit extreme. What I realised in one of the rooms the water was a lot and when I came and check outside, I saw the whole place was flooded. But rain didn’t fall so I didn’t understand what the flooding was about. It didn’t reach inside the shop but from the back of the house it came in. I saw some officials were here monitoring and then later this morning I see it go back down,” she shared.