Clarendon residents fearful of flood waters

Horace Fisher, Star Writer

With a severe drought affecting most areas of Jamaica, scores of Rocky Point’s residents in Clarendon are living in knee- deep flood waters, an infestation of mosquitoes and are fearful that they and their belongings will soon get washed out to sea.

The worried residents, pointing to a massive fish kill in the community just days ago, complained that the Rio Minho river is now blocked, and the rising water has been flooding the homes of hundreds of residents along the West End Road for the last three weeks.

The affected residents, pointed to loss of domestic animals, utensils, clothing and other personal items to the water. They lamented that calls to their member of parliament, Rudyard Spencer; the National Work Agency (NWA); and the National Environment and Planning Agency have so far gone unanswered.

“The water come up almost my house, look around the back, everything dead, even the animals; we can’t go through this anymore, a pure mosquitoes down here, it is unbearable,” said Ivy Pryce, a shopkeeper from the area.

Councillor for the Rocky Point Division, Winston Maragh, explained that because of the drought, the river has lost some of its velocity, which rendered it unable to naturally clear the blockage at the point where the river meets the sea at Rocky Point.

“There is a sand bar blocking the river from discharging into the sea. Clearing the sand bar will require a tractor, but when I called the NWA parish manager, I am being told that there isn’t any money to send the tractor here,” Councilor Maragh insisted.

View the original article here

Clarendon residents fearful of flood waters

Flash Flood Warning for Portland, St Mary remains in effect

Tuesday, January 21, 2014 | 5:14 PM    

KINGSTON, Jamaica — A Flash Flood Warning remains in effect for Portland and St Mary until 5:00 pm Wednesday, January 22, the Meteorological Service has advised.

Residents in low-lying areas are being urged to be on the alert for rising waters and be ready to move quickly to higher ground.

In addition motorists and pedestrians should not attempt to cross flooded roadways or other low-lying areas as strong currents are likely.

The Met Service said that a Stationary Front which extends across eastern Cuba and Jamaica continues to produce showers across sections of mainly northern parishes. Moderate to heavy showers have occurred over Portland and St Mary Tuesday morning, while sections of St James, Trelawny and Westmoreland were affected by very heavy showers in the afternoon.

The outlook is for scattered showers to continue across the island especially over Portland and St Mary on Wednesday. The Met Service’s warning comes despite reports from Portland residents of an ease in the parish.

A decrease in rainfall is expected on Thursday as the Front weakens, the Met Service said.

View the original article here

Flash Flood Warning for Portland, St Mary remains in effect

Chantal prompts look at lack of funds for flood mitigation

THE National Works Agency (NWA) admitted yesterday that it would have to seek additional funding for disaster mitigation, arising from the threat of flooding from a tropical wave from the remnants of Tropical Storm Chantal.

A report from the agency, which should have been discussed by Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) at Gordon House yesterday, showed that despite a request to the Ministry of Finance for $400 million in the 2013/14 budget to clean drains and gullies, the agency only got $31 million.The agency said in the report that it was “concerned about the impact” of the under-funding, which amounted to less than 10 per cent of a request to fund its Capital A Flood Damage Rehabilitation Cleaning of Gullies and Drains Mitigation Programme.The agency also expressed concern about the impact of the decreased allocation for routine maintenance activities as well, which fell from $1 billion last year to $500 million this year.The report was tabled but not discussed, as the NWA’s representatives had to beat a hasty retreat to Jamaica House, where a meeting had been convened by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller to discuss the threat from the tropical system and the possibility of excessive flooding.But Opposition Spokesman on Finance Audley Shaw said that the retreat to Jamaica House would not help unless the Ministry of Finance agreed to release more funds for gully and drain-cleaning.“Only $1 million has been allocated to Manchester, and I only got $200,000. What can $200,000 do?” Shaw asked.PAAC Chairman Edmund Bartlett said Shaw was lucky to get $200,000 for North East Manchester, as he only got $30,000 for the gullies and drains in East Central St James.Audrey Sewell, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing, under which the NWA falls, admitted that the $31 million allocated was inadequate, but said that under-allocation for flood mitigation was customary.“The ministry, the NWA and related agencies will just have to sit down and look at what we have, what faces us and to see what we can do, as we did with Hurricane Sandy,” she said.“We didn’t have any special allocation for Sandy (last year), but then we had to re-allocate resources based on what faced us,” she added, suggesting that the same would have to be done again this year.Bartlett said he hoped that more funds could be found, “because, certainly what has been provided cannot, in any way, deal with the problem”.“The drains are blocked from bow to stern in every parish, and $31 million is ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous,” Bartlett added.Government MP Lloyd B Smith told the Jamaica Observer after the meeting that he also felt that the $31 million allocation was ridiculous.Asked what he could do with a $31-million drain and gully cleaning programme, NWA Chief Executive Officer E G Hunter responded, “clean $31 million worth of drains”.However, he said that he expected an improvement in the figure, following the threat of adverse weather.A dirty Barbican gully is seen in this recent Observer file photo.

View the original article here

Chantal prompts look at lack of funds for flood mitigation