The attempted rescue of an elderly woman from a tottering house in Manzanilla failed on Monday as pensioner Carol Moller refused to leave her home and her pets. She turned away her brother and rescuers from the Disaster Management Unit of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation (SGRC), the fire service, and the police service.
Her brother Garnet Moller spoke to Newsday after returning from the rescue mission at 2 pm. He was frustrated at his sister’s refusal to leave. The house was unapproachable by vehicle as portions of the road had completely broken away, and the rescue team had to walk along the beach to get to the house.
[caption id="attachment_988108" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Anil Juteram, Chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation leads members of his disaster management unit, and relatives of Carol Moller through floodwaters near Manzanilla Main Road on Monday. - ROGER JACOB[/caption]
“I’m coming from Tunapuna and I’ve been here since 6 am trying to get to her, and we couldn’t get to cross the water at that time. The upstairs and downstairs house is falling, and she’s going to stay in a flat house on the side, which if the big house falls down, it will come on top the small house. She just does not want to leave, and look at these goodly people here waiting to help her, but she will not come out of there. Nobody to be blamed but her herself.
"At least I saw her, she seems to be all right and she believes she can take care of herself from there. She just does not want to leave. She is healthy at this point in time, nothing seems to be wrong with her, she’s walking about and healthy, but she just wants to stay there because that’s her house and nobody wants to leave their house. She’s been living there since 1980. So she will stay there and I will keep monitoring her.”
[caption id="attachment_988104" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The force of floodwaters, which have been raging for days, was too much for this stretch of the Manzanilla Main Road which was left destroyed by the torrent. PHOTO BY ROGER JACOB - ROGER JACOB[/caption]
Moller thanked the team who had come out to attempt to rescue his sister, and especially thanked the two police officers, WPC Bailey and Constable Amman, who waded through chest-high water to reach the location.
“These people here were very helpful and the fire brigade was here in full force, going to do what they could, and this is what TT is about, everybody gets together in case of an emergency and that was shown in Manzanilla here today.”
Newsday attempted to call Carol Moller but was unable to speak to her directly.
[caption id="attachment_988107" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Fire officers make journey to their vehicle after a stranded resident refused their offer of rescue on Monday. - ROGER JACOB[/caption]
SGRC Chairman Anil Juteram was with the team that tried to rescue Moller and told Newsday what he observed.
“We received a report from the police station about an elderly
