- Norman GrindleyThis elderly woman was seen sweeping the street in front of the Craft Market in Downtown Kingston yesterday, making use of the city's first day of sunshine in 10 days.
JAMAICANS gave a collective sigh of relief yesterday as they woke up to sunshine - for the first time in 10 days.
The sunshine brought with it a bustle of activities from early, in Half-Way Tree, Cross Roads and Downtown Kingston, as higglers peddled their wares and shoppers headed to supermarkets.
Business places which had seen dwindling business, were opened from early in the morning.
Duty forecaster at the Met Office at the Norman Manley International Airport, Ronald Moodie, said the sunshine signalled a gradual return to normalcy in the weather conditions.
"For tomorrow (Sunday) there will be partly cloudy conditions and widely scattered showers across the island, but we will not see anything like we have seen for the last week-and-half," he said yesterday.
The country had been receiving heavy rains for almost two weeks, as a result of a large area of disturbed weather which has been affecting Jamaica and the Caribbean. The heavy rains, resulted in the deaths of at least seven persons and put an estimated 500 families in shelters across the island. It also caused extensive damage to infrastructure and agriculture and caused a disruption to power supply. Damage has been put at several hundred million dollars.
Meanwhile, up to press time the representatives of four ministries and the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) were locked in a marathon meeting which had started from 10 a.m., at Jamaica House, discussing the damage and dislocation caused by the floods.
The meeting was called by Prime Minister P. J. Patterson and included representatives from the ministries of Health, Transportation and Works, Social Security and Agriculture. From the meeting should come a report to be presented to Cabinet tomorrow.
Up to late evening there was no word from the ODPEM and the Government as to the outcome of the meeting.
