By Analee Bernard, Freelance WriterBLACK RIVER, St. Elizabeth:
THE WATER in Newmarket is rising at a foot per day but the people in the town refuse to relocate.
Denise Colquhoun, a member of one of three families relocated to the Newmarket Community Centre, told us that rain and winds on the weekend had lifted the zinc off the roof of the centre and had caused leaking.
However, Parish Co-ordinator Yvonne Morrison said the official shelter was at the Lewisville High School. She also said an advisory had been put on radio that the people should relocate, but they refused to heed the warning.
She said she would visit the Newmarket Community Centre to assess the conditions there and would again inform them to relocate to the Lewisville High School.
Residents who refused to relocate said they know the history of the water and watched the level every morning, so they know when it is time to move.
One such resident is Shirley Collins. She said that the water will dry up within three months. As soon as the river at Middle Quarters recedes, the water at Newmarket will move like Dunn's River Falls.
Mr. Collins dismissed speculation there was a river head in Newmarket. The river head is in Westmoreland and seeps under the Carmel Hill and close into Newmarket which, he said, is running right now and that is the reason why the Darliston Road is impassable.
There is also an old sugar mill dam over in Bruster in Kilmanock and it is there that the dam is broken and flowing the water into Newmarket. He further said his father told him that the water came down in 1912, 1933 and 1979, so it is historical that every 20-50 years the water will come down in the town.
There has been no loss of human life and only one dead cow could be seen floating in the water.
However, some yam crops are totally lost and a playfield opposite the Seventh-Day Adventist Church is completely covered with water. The Newmarket Abattoir is also submerged.
