Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

UP TO late yesterday afternoon, sections of Temple Hall main road were impassable because of land slippages and fallen light posts, which were displaced by Hurricane Ivan.

When The Gleaner arrived on the scene, residents, armed with machetes and a backhoe, could be seen trying to clear the main road. Motorists sat patiently in their cars as they waited for the road to be cleared.

One such motorist was a surgical resident from the Spanish Town Hospital, who told The Gleaner that he had not been home since Friday. "I have been trying to make it home and I can't get home. The residents have been doing a good job by clearing fallen trees. I am hell bent on going home. Even if I have to walk I am heading home," he said.

LOOTED OR FLOODED

Fitzroy McPherson was waiting for the road to be cleared from 7:00 a.m. and wanted to reach Port Antonio to check on his business place. "I need to see what is happening. I have to get there. I don't know if it is looted or flooded," he bemoaned.

Hurricane Ivan, which slowly moved below the island on Friday into Saturday evening, left behind battered trees that were strewn into the roaring Wag Water River and on the main roads of Stony Hill, Golden Spring and Temple Hall.

Light posts were uprooted and blocked the main roads of Golden Spring and Temple Hall. Land slippages with debris also blocked these roads.

Nash Williams, a resident of Temple Hall whose driveway was totally blocked off because of a landslide, said that he was surprised by the amount of damage caused by Hurricane Ivan. "I didn't expect all the place to come down like this," he said, as he also showed our news team three uprooted breadfruit trees and other fruit trees in his backyard.

For Pam Thomas, her fruit trees also got a beating from Hurricane Ivan. "My house was not damaged but every breadfruit tree was uprooted," she said.

Back to News

Go-Jamaica | Jamaica Star | Go-Local Jamaica | Sports Jamaica | Letters to the Editor