A torrential downpour yesterday caused horrific traffic congestion, grounded a few flights and left hundreds of bus commuters stranded as they waited hours for public transport.
Authorities reported fallen trees while residents complained of flooded neighbourhoods and a number of events were called off.
To cap it, meteorological officials warned residents to brace for more of the same today as a lower level trough sweeps across Barbados and the Windward Islands.
LIAT flights to Trinidad, Grenada and Guyana were reportedly disrupted. However, corporate communications specialist at the Grantley Adams International Airport, Keith Goddard, said operations there were not otherwise affected.
In Airy Cot, St Thomas, resident Ethelbert Daniel made a plea for the River Tamarind trees along the road leading into that community to be trimmed and the older trees removed.
Daniel was blocked from getting into his home when three of the trees were blown down.
He insisted they were too tall and posed a risk to anyone using the road.
He parked his car and waited 15 minutes as a Roving Response Team, with help from personnel from C. O. Williams Construction, cleared the road.
He said in 2010 when Tropical Strom Tomas struck, he found himself in a similar situation and appealed to the landowner, without success, to remove the trees.
“If they would trim them the wind would not be able to blow them down,” he said.
“It is because they are so high up in the air that the wind can blow them down when it gets too strong.”
At Bannister Land, Martindale’s Road, some residents demanded that two coconut trees be cut down before they end up in their homes. Their challenge is that the landowner died some years ago.
Cecelia Edmee’s house is located right next to the two trees and her daughter said she was extremely afraid yesterday morning when the high winds started to blow.
“What if that drop down on the house and kill somebody in there?” she complained.
Another resident, identified only as Pedro, said when the wind is strong the trees sway greatly and since the roots have grown out of the ground there is really nothing holding them in place.
Residents on the main road were also upset that after the road had been improved there was no proper drainage for the water to run off and they had to endure flooded walkways.
Meanwhile, Tracy Marshall, programme officer at the Department of Emergency Management confirmed that the agency responded to a number of incidents, including one in which a few galvanized metal sheets were blown off a roof in Clapham, St Michael. (LK/AC)