Earlier this week Bullet Tree was submerged in 6 feet of water but tonight conditions are improving. The Bullet Tree Bridge is no longer under water but some parts of the village are still isolated because of flooding. Electricity meanwhile has been restored to some parts of the village but there is still no potable water. And so it is touch and go in Bullet Tree and its three thousand residents. Most of those who fled to higher ground have returned to homes devastated by flood waters. Our 7NEWS team returned to Bullet Tree again today. We visited the Camalote area of Bullet Tree where villagers there, most of whom live right on the river side, began picking up the pieces, or we should say, the pieces they have left. Keith Swift has their story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
This morning Bullet Tree residents lined up inside the community center to receive water and basic food items such as beans, rice, and canned foods from NEMO It is not much but for villagers like 83 year old Edurica Manzanero, who struggled to carry the bag of groceries she received, something is better than nothing.
Edurica Manzanero, Flood Victim
[Translation] “She benefits from this to eat because she doesn’t have money to buy nothing, she can’t get across the village to get her stuff so that is the only way she can get her stuff from the community center which the people are providing for them.”
But there are those villagers for whom no amount of ration will help. Maria Jimenez’s home now sits on island - accessible only by boat and the floods wiped away her crops.
Maria Jimenez, Flood Victim
“I was affected in many things starting from mattress, sofa, clothes,
my kids footwear, my chicken coup, toilet, and everything gone. I could only take out some clothes. Only clothes then, yes only clothes. I think it will take more than one month so that I can come back to my house.”
Keith Swift,
I see your guava and banana trees have been destroyed.
Maria Jimenez,
“Yes all these, we use it for us to eat, the plantains, the bananas, and that. We don’t have them, they are finished.”
And while the flood washed away Jimenez’s crops, next door the ferocious currents brought down Eugenio Garcia’s fence and left a path of destruction in his home.
Eugenio Garcia, Flood Victim
“Right here was damaged. The refridge and stove and we didn’t have a lot of things right here. All the dishes and things got messed up. Only that. We didn’t have much right here. You see the table how it stays, bent up and thing. All the things in the yard, the doors and thing mess up. The fence too, the water brought it down. It didn’t take it but it is still a lot of damage.”
Keith Swift,
Did you expect this?
Eugenio Garcia,
“No we didn’t expect this.”
Neither did Abbymen Cruz.
Abbymen Cruz, Flood Victim
“We came yesterday and see the flood, it was very thick with mud, the walls and the floor and all the things that were damaged. We got infected very bad with this flooding. We didn’t get expect this water to come so high and like you see we have sofa sets.”
William Swan from DEMO says they took enough water and food supplies for 240 families in Bullet Tree. They also dropped off food supplies in Santa Familia and Billie White which were also hit by the flood waters.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited and Prepared for the internet by Keith Swift
