- Junior DowieVendors at Coronation Market, Kingston, turned out to meet shoppers for regular business despite the rain yesterday.
Petulia Clarke, Staff Reporter
'To get to you my love...
I will climb the highest mountains
Brave the wildest valleys
Swim the roughest seas,
But if rain fall - don't expect mi'
- Author unknown
IN JAMAICA, especially, rain and business are not prime companions. As is the trend, workers hardly brave the rain to their places of employment, schools remain closed and the daily grind comes to a halt.
But yesterday, despite sporadic showers, downtown Kingston and Coronation Market had the usual hustle and bustle of activity as shoppers and vendors gathered to trade, with no ease in the congestion.
Vendors from as far away as Portland and St. Elizabeth braved the rain, some having been trucked into Kingston as early as Thursday to cash in on the weekend sales.
But the muck and mud that shoppers had to skip through were stark reminders of the presence of Hurricane Isidore in the region.
Escallion prices, one shopper said had dropped from $160 per pound to $100, while items like plantains and melon remained at $10-$15. The shopper, Marion Donald, a household helper from St. Andrew, said that she bought a bag with five cloves of garlic for $20 (compared to $10 per clove at the supermarket), huge sweet peppers at $20 for one, tomatoes at $40 per pound and onions at $20 per pound.
Other items like yam and Irish potatoes had upped to $5 more or so, another shopper said, as the vendors were complaining that the farmers had raised prices because of crop shortfall caused by the rain.
Banana vendor and Portlander, Pauline Brown, said that she and a bunch of others who travel by truck had been in Kingston since Thursday, having come down when the rainfall wasn't so heavy.
She said that the buyer traffic had been just as heavy as on past weekends, but complained that high farmer prices and market fees were running her broke.
"It's distressing, what we have to pay," she said. "It coming like a give weh wi give weh more than what we sell. The people dem beg wi fi lower the prices, but is only so much we can do."
She said that after paying for the spot she sells on, for the load, for the shed and for the board bed that she rests on, profits dwindle by as much as $1,000 weekly.
But she has to remain competitive, and keep her bananas, plantains and coconuts selling at market price or there will be no sales. Other family members sell on Princess Street where there is less complaints about food prices, she said.
Jamaica Chamber of Commerce President, Michael Ammar Jr., said on Friday, that though he could not give an estimate on funds lost by businesses because of the rain, business persons have had "practically zero business" since Tuesday. "We wouldn't be able to calculate it in dollar terms, but since Tuesday, the week has been a wipe-out," he said.
Mr. Ammar said that there was a little business on Friday the first day that there was some sunshine but he expected more business yesterday. He compared Friday's earnings to a Wednesday which is usually a "dead day" for business.
"September is traditionally the worst month for business after back to school," he said. "It wasn't going to be busy anyway, but the weather knocked everything out."
Yesterday, hundreds of shoppers, oblivious to the weather were spotted in North Parade and in stores on King and Orange streets.
The Meteorological Office has reported that cloudy and windy conditions with occasional outbreaks of showers are expected to continue through today into Tuesday, as Jamaica continues to recover from Hurricane Isidore. A flash flood warning also remains in effect for low lying and flood prone areas in Jamaica as spiral bands associated with Isidore continue to cause flooding over sections of the island.
The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) reported flooding in Portland; Red Ground and St. Johns Road, St. Catherine; Duhaney Pen, and the Yallahs Fording in St. Thomas and, in the Corporate Area, manholes were overflowing in Vineyard Town and Windward Road. In Westmoreland, the hardest hit parish, help packages were sent to persons still housed at the shelter at the Little London Primary School. Persons who were at the other two shelters at Frome Technical and Hudson Street Basic schools had returned home, ODPEM said.
Several roads were also reported blocked including the road to Portland from St. Thomas. National Works Agency (NWA) Information Officer, Vando Palmer, said that the NWA was working to clear blocked roads, and that all 32 roads that had been reported blocked up to Friday had been cleared. Estimates of the damage to roads are not yet available, Mr. Palmer said. He also said that the issue of proper drainage on the perennially flooded Marcus Garvey Drive in St. Andrew is now high on the NWA's agenda, and the road would be repaired again as soon as possible.
