Carrot Bay residents claim of being abandoned during high surf
Businessman, Mr Ulric Pilgrim, owner of Sappy’s Café and Island Paradise related that debris from the unusually high surf took over his premises completely earlier this week. Mr Pilgrim explained that his entire business place was flooded and the salt water even flooring some of the banana trees in his yard.
Mr Pilgrim further revealed that even though he had grown up in the area, this is the first time he has ever seen the surf appearing this rough. “We had to clean the roads, ghuts… if we get some serious rain, we [will] get flooded out…”
He described having to turn out with a small group of persons from the area to clear up the debris along the roadways with shovels and other hand tools. “We were in real bad shape here,” he explained. He also said it seemed as if the government forgot the persons in Carrot Bay as, according to him, no one had turned out to assist from the Public Works Department at any time during the almost week-long freak weather.
Another shopkeeper, who actually had his shop closer to the water’s edge, did not fare as badly and explained that he had not received any significant damage to his business location.
Pictures, it is said, often tell a thousand words and it was clear to any casual observer that made their way through the Carrot Bay and Cane Garden Bay areas during the course of the week, that deft and cautious manoeuvring was required to avoid the debris, rocks and other objects that littered the roadway.
It was also noticed that portions of the sea wall gave way due to the consistent and heavy force that it was met with from the roaring waves and there was evidence of some erosion along the shoreline. Actual damage to the roadway appeared minimal but the seawalls and any businesses that might have been located close-by, as expected, took the bulk of the impact and were seemingly the hardest hit.
Speaking with the Department of Disaster Management’s, Sharlene Dabreo, Virgin Islands News Online was told that there were no reports received of any damage. She did say, however, that the Department was aware that there was high surf in the area but repeated that there were no reports of any significant impact on the location.
First District Representative Andrew A. Fahie said he was able to survey the area and contact the relevant authorities to come to inspect the area. "I also requested of the relevant government authorities to have the area cleaned up as well as to move forward with the already existing mitigation sea defense plans as well as the Carrot Bay Development plan that was started during the immediate past Administration," he added.
He also noted that the "wave surge affected not only Carrot Bay but the entire Northern side of the 1st District like Capoon's Bay, Long Bay and Smuggler's Cove as well as other areas on the North in other Districts." Hon. Fahie was also thankful to God that no major damage was realised to date as well as no loss of lives or property.
Cane Garden Bay
Things were not much different over at Cane Garden Bay (CGB) as the ocean heaped loads of sand, rock and other debris onto the roadway several times a day during the week. There was also significant damage caused to sections of the roadway and also caused water-logging and left behind sand-filled stores and bars to be cleaned up afterwards.
Al Henley, one of the many ocean-front business owners in the CGB area, explained that his bar was heavily affected by the surf. He related a tale of standing watch from as early as 4 A.M. in the morning as the sand and water made their way further and further ashore. His bar eventually became filled with sand and forced the removal of much of his equipment to higher ground as he tried to mitigate any damages that may have come as a result of the surf.
Mr Henley, a long-time resident of the area, explained that he had seen worse weather and was prepared for some of the effects that it could have had on his business but was very sore about the fact that it coincided with the arrival of a cruise ship to the island.
Persons from the cruises usually populate the bars that line the shoreline in CGB but this time around they gave little more than a passing glance to those bars.
Another long-time resident of the area, Delvett Hodge, related that this was indeed the first time he had witnessed the ocean having this much of an effect on the roadways for a very long time.
Public Works response
The Public Works Department was quite active in the CGB area, being forced to come as much as twice per day several days of the week to clean up the roadways and remove some of the heavy rocks, thick layers of sand and other debris that lodged itself often as far as the nearby yards of some residents.
Devon Skelton of the Public Works Department (PWD) could not give a definite answer about what amount of work was done by the department in the areas but suggested that there was supposed to be some repair work being conducted on the road as well as the walls at the time in the CGB area specifically. “In Cane Garden Bay, there are at least three or four areas, but I’m not sure about Carrot Bay,” he said.
He revealed that the majority of the work being done was not necessarily as a result of the current high surf but for damages that were reported much earlier in the year. Efforts to reach the engineer involved in the project were not successful.
Mr Skelton later confirmed that reports were received about the debris on the roadway and the department responded to this as soon as it could.
Second District Representative Hon. J. Alvin Christopher said he observed the damage in the CGB area himself and was constantly on the phone with the PWD about cleaning up in the area. He said, the damage was “not only in Cane Garden Bay alone, the surf was extremely high… came all the way up into businesses and other things in the area.”
Hon. Christopher related “the major impact is the continual erosion of the road in Cane Garden Bay,” noting specifically, “that has to be addressed.”
“It’s a problem about three years old,” he expressed, “you get the Ministers out there… to look at it, you get costs on it, you try to get money in the budget, try to see if you get it addressed… that has been done from the last administration continuing to this one… it still hasn't been addressed yet…”
He explained that persons were looking at the problem as recently as a month ago and he noted there was still no solution, “I have ideas, but the Ministers and the Department have the final word,” Hon. Christopher said. “District Representatives don’t have a budget to work from, they can only report the incidents.”
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36 Responses to “Carrot Bay residents claim of being abandoned during high surf ”
We are buying, wholesale, the useless crap coming out of North America and Europe. Certain loose, immoral lifestyles are fast becoming the norm in the VI. We are losing our spiritual identity.....
18th March 2008. Plenty bigger.
1992 Perfect Storm swell at least another half bigger.
This one was big but people must not make things up in their search for govt. to give them free money.
Two organizations, if you looking someone to blame:
- Disaster Management should have put out more information on the coming swell which was forecast a week before and much bigger than it was in real time.
- the media should have put out more information to all people so they knew what was expected. You see VINO and Platinum warning anyone, when the swell was forecast to be GIANT.
We lucky it only came in at 12-14ft not the early forecast of 20ft.
So its up to the media companies to put the info out there when information comes through from DDM - and it seems they didn't do it.
People got to learn to take the weather seriously because it's only getting more serious with the way the climate changing.
Come on VINO and others, stop focusing on tittle tattle VIP vs NDP nonsense. If all you had given residents of the north side the proper information they could have prepare a lot better.