Land slippages block roads in Western Jamaica
Heavy rainfall which lashed Western Jamaica on Monday night caused several land slippages from Trelawny to Hanover.
Several roads have also been left with a build up of silt while others have been rendered impassable.
National Works Agency (NWA) personnel have been kept busy all morning clearing silt in the four western parishes.
Sections of the Salt Spring Road are impassable, forcing motorists leaving Cornwall Courts to travel through Porto Bello to Montego Bay.
The road, which is being developed under the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme, has been badly scoured with recently laid material washed away.
Janel Ricketts, NWA Public Relations Officer for the region, said some of the reports such as road breakaways in Westmoreland remain unconfirmed.
She notes however that teams have been busy all of Tuesday morning clearing debris in the vicinity of the Sangster International Airport and the Examination Depot in Flanker.
“We are at a section of Hobbs Avenue where there was significant damage and this problem has resulted in a bit of washed down silt being washed onto the roadway and we have just now cleared this section of the roadway so motorists can traverse the area freely,” she said.
Miss Ricketts adds that there is also a build up of silt along the Marchmont to Retrieve road in St. James.
Over in Hanover there is land slippage and a number of roads are partially blocked.
In Trelawny, the Martha Brae to Kinloss Road has a large amount of washed down silt between mile posts 5 and 6.
There is also a landslide by Church Tower.
The National Works Agency is urging motorists to proceed with caution along the affected roads.
Freak storm and flooding wreaks havoc in Clarendon
Several residents of Four Paths and Osbourne Store in Clarendon are on Tuesday afternoon still counting their losses following a freak storm and flood waters on Monday.
When the RJR News team stopped at a section of the Swansea main road several persons including motorists were viewing the trail of destruction by Mother Nature.
A resident from the Swansea community, who witnessed the freak storm, spoke with our newscentre.
“Yesterday evening at about four o’clock there was some rain and then we heard this sound and when we looked outside we saw the breeze tearing down trees, house tops then the rain started. That did a little damage, not severe damage then at 6:30 there was another set of breeze and that one just took off the other roofs down the road,” said the resident.
Heavy showers put residents in peril
Noel Arscott, Member of Parliament for South West Clarendon, says several residents in the constituency had to seek alternative shelter Monday night as they were unable reach home.
He said some persons had to sleep in their motor vehicles.
“The shelters are not opened and persons are trying to find places where they can stay for the night. I saw one family with about six young children trying to find shelter and the situation is pretty bad,” Mr. Arscott said. Meanwhile, it was a sleepless night for several residents of Waterford in Portmore, St. Catherine as rising water threatened their houses.blocked drains resulted in flooding in parts of the community.
One resident told our news centre that if the drains are not cleaned soon the situation could worsen.
“The water is not flowing through the drain because I understand that the main drain by Dyke Road is flooded and overflowing and it has come over onto Adair Drive also so we have to be waiting and watching. Let’s hope we can get someone to come in and clean the drain, otherwise we will be flooded out,” said a resident of Waterford.
In the meantime residents of Treadways in St. Catherine, who are now demonstrating in the town, are blaming the construction of the highway for the flooding now affecting them.
“Vehicles can’t pass, nothing at all, everything comes over on us right now. Where I live that’s where they built the highway and they turned all the water down here, you want to see the amount of stone and mud that washed down from off the highway come down here. Mud and water, right through the house,” said a resident of Treadways in St. Catherine.
No ODPEM shelter activated as yet
Despite reports of flooding in several communities, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (OPDEM) is reporting that none of its shelters has been activated.
Speaking on RJR's Hotline on Tuesday morning, ODPEM Director General Ronald Jackson disclosed that affected persons are relying on each other.
“Fortunately for us the citizens in a number of the communities there are those who are having problems but most of the persons we have been liaising with said they have been having problems but they are not willing to go to a shelter right now, they are willing to ride it out which is a good thing in the context that their lives are not threatened and we’re not having to deploy resources so early in the field given the resource constraints,” Mr. Jackson said.
And Mr. Jackson appealed for residents to be more proactive in guarding against flooding.
“To really be responsible in terms of the disposal of waste because whilst we’ve heard that funds have been released to clean the drains immediately after they are cleaned they are packed up with garbage. It is really unfair to ask the taxpayers to have their dollars being used to clean up the mess when we can deal with it in a much better way,” he said.
NWC reservoirs full to the brim
The National Water Commission (NWC) is reporting that due to the continuous rains two of its major catchment facilities in the Corporate Area are now full to capacity.
“Storage as at this point would not be a significant issue for us, we are at 100% storage at our two major reservoirs, Hermitage is up to its 393 million gallon capacity and the Mona reservoir is up to its 809 million gallon capacity as of early in the weekend,” said Charles Buchanan, the NWC's Corporate Public Relations Manager.
He added that there will not be any water restrictions in the immediate future, unless there are unforeseen circumstances.
“There wouldn't be any restrictions now as a result of not having water. Any disruptions in water that customers may experience should be for an entirely different reason,” he said
