Cubans evacuated from precarious dwellings are housed in a school in the south-western coastal town of Batabano yesterday. - ReutersHEAVY SHOWERS and thunderstorms associated with tropical storm Isidore continued to cause flooding throughout the island yesterday, even after the Meteorological Office had lifted its tropical storm warning for Jamaica.
In its 5 p.m. report, the last for yesterday, the Meteorological Office said that a flash flood warning remained in effect for low-lying and flood-prone areas, as spiral bands associated with the storm continued to stretch southward and influence weather conditions over Jamaica.
The warning means that flash flooding has been reported or will occur and motorists are advised not to attempt to cross flooded roadways or other low lying areas as strong currents are likely.
The Office of Disaster Pre-paredness and Emergency Ma-nagement (ODPEM) said yesterday that in the Corporate Area seven families had to be housed at the Salvation Deliverance Church, New Haven, western St. Andrew. In Westmoreland, persons were evacuated from the Ricketts River area by the Jamaica Fire Brigade and sheltered at the Frome Technical High School.
NEW HAVEN'S NIGHTMARE
By yesterday afternoon, however, residents of Riverside Drive in the flood-prone New Haven community, had returned home, as the rains had eased.
They complained that the problems were caused by a gully that runs on the outside of the low-lying community into the nearby Duhaney River. The gully overflows whenever heavy rains bring the level of water in the river up to houses near the riverbank.
New Haven's problems have existed for several years, as the river is higher than the drains and when it rains the river flows into the drains instead of the other way around. The National Works Agency started work there last year to remove a 25-year pile-up of garbage from the gully and the river as persons living in that vicinity have been consistently flooded out. However the unfinished work contributed to the flooding this time again, a resident said.
Southwestern Clarendon also had its share of troubles, as blocked drains in the districts of Banks, Clarendon Gardens, York Town and Race Course caused flooding in those areas.
The National Water Commission advised customers to store water for use in case of damage to water treatment plants caused by flooding, landslides, turbidity, pipeline dislocation, blocked intakes, electrical problems and heavy siltation. It said damage already exists in the metro region, where 30 water supply systems, mainly in small rural communities in St. Andrew and St. Thomas, were disrupted. Among these are Flanstead, Griffin, Queen Hill, Westphalia, Bucky Plain, Barnett Wood and King Weston in St. Andrew and Trinityville, Easington, Dalvey and White Horses in St. Thomas.
Last night the Spanish Town Treatment plant supplied from the Rio Cobre Dam in St. Catherine, as well as the Waterloo and Sunnyside plants, were out of operation because of high turbidity. Twelve systems in the central region are also out of operation as are at least four in the northern region.
