Status Report: Severe Rainfall Damage Nov 2004

[Steve Wooler]

As readers may know, northern Tobago suffered horrendous rainfall in mid-November. I have just received the following report from Duane Kenny, the General Manager of the Blue Waters Inn.

May I offer our deepest condolences and sympathy to the family and work colleagues of Tyrone McMillan, who lost his life in a mud slide and I know that everyone who knew him will feel the loss.

I cannot begin to describe the destruction of the rain on the villages of Loui D'or, Delaford, Speyside and Charlotesville. The roads are in a mess. Whole sections of mountains have come down. Tyrone our bar tender was killed on Friday when a hill fell on his car as he was moving the vehicle. A horrific loss as he was one of our best. The hotel is operational as far as guests are concerned. We have power, water, and food. 7 rooms are without AC has a land slide destroyed those. All rooms were otherwise unaffected. The parking lot is under tons of mud, along with the tennis court but guests can still come in and out from the property. Driving to the other side of the island takes hours now due to the amount of heavy equipment trying to clear the landslides on the road. Kings bay road is in bad shape, caution must be exercised when driving it. In fact I would ask you to post up on the site that during this period, visitors to the island should not drive past Loui D'or unless they are coming to stay at a hotel as the less cars that are on the road the quicker we can clean and fix the roads.

[Geoff M]

Very very sad news. My wife and I were at BWI in September, and I remember Tyrone well.

My thoughts are with his family, friend and colleagues.

[Jean Kitson]

My boyfriend and I were staying at the Blue Waters Inn when they had the rainfall; I wanted to post about it but didn't want to put anyone off from going so thank you, Steve, for posting Duane's message.

We had a wonderful week prior to the rainfall staying at this beautiful and well run hotel. I also cannot say enough about how fantastic the staff were after the flooding and damage. Everyone was absolutely amazing and I have to say the qulity of a hotel really shows itself when in trouble.

We stayed in one of the unaffected rooms and so were amazed when we came down on Friday morning to find the dining room, kitchen and offices flooded, with a river running through the reception area, one of the dive boats had capsized in the bay, the jetty was covered in rubble from a landslide behind the dive shop, the car park deep in mud and rubble. Everybody pitched in to get things righted / cleaned / free of mud, including the guests until the staff had all got in around lunchtime and sent us off the be guests and leave them to the clear up. Despite flooding and lack of power they managed to provide lunch and an impressive buffet meal for dinner. I will also never forget the sight of the boat being righted; about four boatloads of Tobagonians came round from Speyside and there was much shouting and arm-waving and about fifteen people in charge as about thirty men leapt in the water and did various things with ropes before finally getting the boat the right way up and bailed out.

I have to say that the staff all worked incredibly hard, incredibly professionally. Boats were organised the next day to get us out as the roads were still blocked (with thanks as well to the Derwents at the dive shop). It is a real testament to how brilliant the Blue Waters and the Aquamarine staff are that this did not in any way ruin our time away; in fact, I felt we got to know people a little better and left with great sorrow.

It's a fantastic hotel and I'm just very sorry that they have suffered such a loss.