Hi folks, I was just off-island for the weekend. The waters were really bad in the Gulf of Paria thru most of the weekend. Yesterday morning the storm clouds started rolling across NW Trinidad. The waters started churning again, and it was quite a display. My brother called about 2pm to say that he had seen the worst flooding ever in our valley. The Diego Martin river had overflowed its banks along almost 2/3 of its length through the valley. This spans quite a few miles till it reaches the sea. The good thing is that the overflow mostly affected the highway which runs along the river, so that area was impassable. The bad thing is that most homes and residential roads are built near the water's edge, so if retaining walls broke, there was major flooding for those families. For others, the waters climbed onto the streets and overrun into folks' yards and homes. My yard got a little water, but some of my neighbours were flooded out.
Also, in another nearby valley (Belmont) numerous families lost their roofs and trees were uprooted. Amateur video showed what appears to be the start of a funnel cloud, but our Met office has denied that a tornado touched down.
With all that instability overhead, and the very warm waters abounding, I'm prepared for anything to happen with the pouch that's passing through. Keep safe everybody!