My Two Cents » Cleaning up after the flood : A Jamaica Gleaner Blog

Cleaning up after the flood

The last weeks have been one of the wettest in a long time and was caused by an area of disturbed weather which later became tropical storm Nicole. At this point I would like to extend my sympathies to those families who lost persons or who lost property to the flood and to the many others who were affected. In order to keep the economy moving the government has to clean up as quickly as possible while at the same time controlling the expenditure. How quickly and how efficiently this is done will determine how soon the country can return to normal.

For areas where rivers overflowed there is nothing that can be done about the water except to allow time for it to retreat. I was heartened however by the government giving out a phone number for pregnant women about to deliver, and for those are having medical emergencies, to be air lifted out of their community. Of course one must understand that during the actual rain it may not be possible to fly at all. Once again someone tried to navigate the Bogwalk gorge and got caught in the flood waters and had to be airlifted out. Persons do not appreciate that their reckless behaviour can result in other persons not receiving assistance because they have to be rescued.

There was damage to the approach areas of the crossing at Harbour View resulting in the community being cut off once again. However I think that the National Works Agency is to be commended for restoring access to the community within 24 hours of the rain ceasing. In addition equipment was moved to many areas to deal with clearing roads which had been blocked by land slides. Another good thing was that the shelters were open to receive evacuees and persons heeded the call of the authorities to leave the flood prone areas.

One negative that came out of this situation is that there are not enough resources in place to deal with all of the problems. One answer may be to try to encourage more persons to volunteer their assistance after natural disasters because if this had been a hurricane or earthquake we would have been completely overwhelmed. For instance posting police or soldiers at the Harbour View bridge would have prevented persons from trying to cross the river at the risk of their lives. In addition more public education is needed about the dangers associated with heavy rains and winds.

Generally I think that the response of the government has been good but there are still areas that require improvement.

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4 Responses to “Cleaning up after the flood”

samuel robinson says:

October 12, 2010 at 4:48 pm

it’s good to see lucea hanover bein get some attention in the area of drain cleaning finally thank you.
Jo Bent says:

October 12, 2010 at 8:43 pm

My sympathy goes out to everyone, in times like these we need each other, A country that
promotes volunteerism always manage to follow
plans, preparation and willingness.
There are rainy season which comes every yr & its no surprise, MPs have to use what little is allotted to take care of road/passes and have the media announcing alerts & shelters which could have a volunteer nurse/midwife and security assigned to rural areas liable to be cut off. Fishermen should be made to have proper license & equipment (CB) also a cneck in post b4 going way out to sea.
If every fire-house in Jamaica had about 10 volunteers (with background ck) these people could help in rescues, and searches & aid when there are catastrophic occurances.
Ppl helping each other to put things back together, helps the country and their communities , after all we r our brothers keeper. The Govt does not have to organize this,it can be done by citizens, not on a political level but as Jamaicans helping Jamaicans. Where r the brilliant Jamaicans.Govt needs to do something about Harbour View and other places that continues to have the same pronlems year after year.
Marjorie Davis says:

October 13, 2010 at 9:24 am

I hope the Government will find money as quickly as they found money to represent “Dudus.” Let’s see what is important. Natural disasters are a part of living and if there were proper controls in place to monitor where people can and cannot build houses, etc. so many lives would not have been lost. There is just too much corruption in this Government for anything to save lives and rebuild to be properly addressed. I was born in St. Mary and the roads when I last saw them in the heart of the Port Maria area were atrocious. The Otram river which runs from where the Hospital used to be when I knew about it right into the heart of the town looked so contaminated that there must be all types of creepy, crawly creatures living there. I can’t fathom why this can’t be cleaned up and the roads in that area fixed.
Come on Bruce Golding do the job you and your cabinet should do. Give the people a half-decent life.
john kind says:

October 16, 2010 at 2:28 pm

just look at these moronic bragadocios,offering free stay at their hotels to the miners just rescued in south america,while their own jamaican people are still suffering the effect of the flooding disaster..shows like i keep saying ,these people have no respect for each other..just look at all the failing countries world wide..from haiti to african continent to now even jamaica,one thing in common ,a lack of respect for each other coming from the top ,which is government to the very bottom,they will kill each other at the blink of an eye,while they think twice about even as much as harming another race…has nothing to do with slavery ,i think ,just people who think they are civilized ,without really being civilized…