NATIONAL EMERGENCY response centres were activated across the island yesterday in the wake of extensive landslides and roadblocks following heavy rain over the past three days.
According to the Ministry of Transport and Works yesterday, the National Works Agency (NWA) had sent several front-end loaders, graders and trucks to clear blocked roads in the affected northern coastal parishes.
Work, which started early in the day, was still being carried out a few minutes before 5:00 p.m. where a front-end loader was still removing chunks of fallen trees and heaps of mud from a hilly area in Broadgate in St. Mary, which blocked a section of that main road.
"We had to use a chain saw to cut the trees, then I went to St. Mary Banana Estates Limited and got a back-hoe (tractor) from the operations manager to move the debris from off the road," Constable Dale Bennett of the Area Two Police Headquarters said as he directed traffic on the Broadgate main road earlier in the day.
The Richmond to Kendal and Richmond to Rose Hall roads in St. Mary were to be cleared today, the same time as the Breastworks to Windsor and Cornwall to Moore Town roads in Portland.
The Fort George Fording, which was washed away, is to be rebuilt as soon as the flood waters recede and work is expected to be finished by the end of this month, the Ministry said.
The heavy showers, associated with a cold front just north of the island, also caused a number of landslides on the Tom's River and Castleton main roads in St. Andrew. Buses and cars became stuck in the mire.
The bubbling, murky Wag River bore true testimony to the might of the downpour in eastern parishes since Sunday afternoon.
"It was yesterday that the water rush down bad. It reach way up there," said Hickson Gowie, a 27-year-old farmer, pointing to a makeshift toilet perched on the river bank.
In Grandy Hole, St. Mary, traffic came to a standstill as huge boulders and large deposits of mud lay on the road. A front-end loader soon cleared the debris.
Residents in Devon Pen were marooned for a few hours as the main road through the community was blocked. Community leaders, however, borrowed a front-end loader from a nearby engineering firm and cleared the road.
"Some farms were washed away; some of the animals have died and the roads mash up," said Keith 'Chappy' Nugent, a 52-year-old farm worker.
In Land Settlement, Portland, at least one woman was forced to evacuate her home when her house was flooded. "Whenever the rain falls, the water always come in through the back and some of the furniture gets spoiled," said dental secretary Phyllis Jacobs, 35.
She said the rain started 2:00 p.m. on Sunday and ended three hours later, during which time she sought refuge in a house in front of hers.
Her brother Dennis's house was also flooded and he blamed this, in part, to an uncleared river that almost runs through his backyard.
"Apparently the bottom line is that when it's raining you are supposed to be sexy. You shouldn't get scared," the 43-year-old seaman said.
Further up the road, Elva Lowe, a 40-year-old store and bar owner, said her business place was flooded and but her house barely escaped the raging waters.
"It (rain) almost come inna de house because dem pickney had to take up de furniture and clothes," she said.
