By Sue-Ann Wayow
AMONGST the several residents marooned in Valsayn South on Monday, is a senior citizens’ home.
Director of the Assarion Senior Citizens Home Ann-Marie Phillip-Holder told AZP News that she cannot access the facility.
The home is located on an incline at Springland Avenue and Springvale Avenue.
“Who out cannot get in and who in cannot get out,” she said.
While the home has enough supplies, her main fear is if there is an emergency, an ambulance cannot access the facility.
“With elderly people, you always have to be prepared for an emergency,” Phillip-Holder said.
Since Friday, three staff members who work 12-hour shifts have not been able to leave the building that houses 16 residents.
Phillip-Holder told AZP News that this was the third time this month that there was inaccessibility to the facility.
She said last time, a resident who went on a doctor’s visit with her daughter had to stay in a hotel for three days before she could have returned home to the facility.
While thankfully, given the building’s design, water was not in the home, there was about five to six feet of water on the roadway Phillip-Holder said.
She admits, “This has been really hard for me.”
The home’s director said local government councillor for Valsayn/St Joseph Seema Ramsaran-Augustine has been supportive throughout the ordeal.
She was also pleased with Member of Parliament for St Augustine Khadijah Ameen for attempting to being awareness to the government authorities to have the problem alleviated.
Phillip-Holder told AZP News just after 11 am, “The weather is nice presently. The sun is out and people should be able to go about doing their business. But we cannot and there is no sight of the water going down any time soon.”
Residents of Valsayn South have submitted an engineering design to the relevant authorities to have the problem fixed.
However, they are still awaiting to see governmental action to the problem that they said have been occurring for many years adding that the water was not coming from Valsayn but from outside of the area.
