By Trudy Simpson, Staff ReporterHEAVY RAINS, accompanied by lightning and thunder, wreaked havoc in three parishes yesterday, leaving many businesses and homes without electricity and causing damage at several more buildings, among them, some media houses.
There were no reports of flooding from the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) up to press time last night but the bad weather caused studio and other equipment malfunctions at Radio Jamaica, Roots FM, CVM Television and Power 106 FM. Power's Bradley Avenue headquarters in Kingston was struck by lightning.
Roots FM personnel reported having a problem signing on and off the air and CVM's news editor, Robert Royer, said that earlier, several computers had "gone down" but later everything was back to normal.
However, Power 106 and Radio Jamaica (RJR) went off the air for extended periods or had wobbly transmissions.
The RJR Group reported losing transmission on all stations but Radio 2. Engineers were trying to restore transmission to Power 106's sister station, Music 99, and to maintain RJR's main afternoon magazine programme, 'Beyond the Headlines' in the wake of a malfunctioning switchboard.
"We have damage to both radio stations... our studio equipment and productivity facilities," said Newton James, general manager of Power 106.
"We're heavily computerised and had damage to some of the computers. Many of the systems for Power 106 are not operational. It's going to take us another 10 days because we have had to send e-mails to get urgent repair parts," he added.
The National Meteorological Service reported that the bad weather was caused by interaction between an upper-level trough near the island and a tropical wave, which is moving across the island. It was expected to run its course by 8 o'clock last night.
The Jamaica Public Service Co. said that power outages yesterday lengthened because the weather
made it difficult for its crews to repair interrupted services in St. Catherine, St. Thomas and Kingston and St. Andrew.
"The company regrets any inconvenience and is asking for the patience and understanding of its customers as repair crews work to restore all areas as soon as possible," JPSCo. said in a statement.
Among the areas affected were Red Hills, Barbican, Jacks Hill, East King's House Road, Patrick Gardens, Cooreville, Smokeyville, Harbour View, Windward Road and Waltham Park Road in St. Andrew. Electricity outages were reported in Plantation Heights, Mount Dawson, Greendale and Westmore Gardens in St. Catherine and in areas such as Bull Bay in St. Thomas.
The rainy weather did not stop some Jamaicans though from struggling with children starting or returning to schools. In sections of the Corporate Area, the rains and the power outages snarled traffic. The rain did not stop transport, police, road safety and education officials from promoting and implementing queuing at some bus stops.
They began the first of four days of activities, dubbed 'Queuing Day' yesterday.
Officers from various ministries, the Jamaica Urban Transit Co. (JUTC), the police, the Island Traffic Authority, the National Works Agency and the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association (JGRA) were out monitoring bus terminals in Half-Way Tree, Cross Roads and downtown Kingston.
The sessions, staged between 5.30 a.m. and 9 a.m., 12.30 p.m. and 3 p.m. and 4.30 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. were halted temporarily because of the heavy downpour but as soon as it eased, they were out again.
"We are not stopping. Things have been going well. The public has been responding. You have a few hitches and glitches there but overall, I would say the public has been responding. We'll be back tomorrow morning (today) at these locations," said Kenute Hare, accident analyst in the Road Safety Unit.
The project is part of the promotion of a multi-million dollar child road safety public education campaign, launched last month to prevent children from being killed on the road by advising persons to look out for children and reminding parents to teach their children on the proper ways of using the road.
