IAN ALLEN /STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
This house in Bull Bay St. Andrew, was destroyed during the passage of Hurricane Dennis on Thursday.
Omar Anderson, Gleaner Writer
TWO DAYS after the passage of Hurricane Dennis, the island's utility companies and road maintenance authorities are attempting to return services to normality.
The Category Two hurricane left several roads and communities inundated as well as landslides especially in northeastern parishes.
Transport and Works Minister, Robert Pickersgill, had encouraging words for pothole-plagued motorists yesterday, disclosing that the Government will proceed on a major road-patching programme after assessing the damage caused by the hurricane.
Mr. Pickersgill yesterday toured sections of the island that were hit by recent rains and said his ministry was committed to start repairing 5,000 kilometres of roads across the island before the end of July.
PATCHING PROGRAMME
"What we are involved with seriously now is making roads passable and thereafter, we'll resume the patching programme as quick as possible," he said.
One week ago, Mr. Pickersgill outlined the Government's plans to fix roads in 12 parishes using the spray-patching and hotmix patching process. He said the
latter, which will be done on 73 arterial roads at a cost of $56 million, will be undertaken by 11 companies. The spray-patching programme will be done by the National Works Agency.
Approximately 100,000 square metres of roads will be repaired.
Most of the initial work will be done in the Corporate Area in areas including the following roads: Cassia Park, Hagley Park, Lady Musgrave, and Washington Boulevard. Once that phase is complete similar work will start in five rural parishes: Manchester, Portland, St. Catherine, St. Thomas and Westmoreland.
The Works Minister said while he had received no reports of significant destruction by Hurricane Dennis, the Rio Grande Bridge in Portland was "a cause for some concern." A helicopter carrying personnel from the Transport and Works Ministry and National Works Agency (NWA) was dispatched to that area yesterday.
Meanwhile, light and power supplier Jamaica Public Service (JPS) say by today about half of the 100,000 customers who were without light during Thursday night's rain storm are expected to regain electricity today. The company said most customers without electricity were in the most badly-affected parishes of St. Thomas, Portland, St. Mary, St. Catherine and St. Andrew.
"JPS is continuing damage assessment and efforts to restore service to customers affected by power outages as a result of the weather conditions associated with Hurricane Dennis," said Winsome Callum, corporate communications manager.
The company assured yesterday that restoration crews have been deployed to continue repairs in the affected communities. It stated, however, that landslides and damaged roads were hampering work in some areas.
Another utility company, the National Water Commission (NWC) also stated yesterday that repair work was being prevented by landslides and flooding at some of its facilities.
normal capacity
"Of the 460 water supply systems NWC operates across the island, 114 systems are now confirmed to either not be operating or not operating at normal capacity at this time," a statement from the commission indicated yesterday. "Some of our customers are presently being supplied. We are doing everything to ensure that all systems are in operation or shortly be put in operation," NWC Communications Manager, Charles Buchanan, told The Gleaner .
For their part, telephone service providers said they fared well during the hurricane's passage.
Alex Hill, vice-president of sales and
marketing at MiPhone, told The Gleaner yesterday that the company's mobile network was not affected. "The system did just fine," he said. "We had back-up generators at all our cell sites and we had no damage."
Digicel, in a press release yesterday, stated that its mobile system was "in good shape". And Cable & Wireless reported that its facilities again demonstrated "their resilience and robustness in the face of another major storm".
The company added that some cell sites experienced power outages but have since been returned to service. C&W said its maintenance crews were working non-stop to rectify other sites soon.
Meanwhile, the National Solid Waste Management Authority has already initiated the clean-up process.
"We are giving priority attention to the main arterial roads throughout the country, like highways and main towns," Executive Chairman Errol Greene told The Gleaner. "The metropolitan areas are our biggest challenge."
The Ministry of Health said yesterday that all public hospitals, except for the Falmouth Hospital, will return to normal operations on Monday. Emergency services will continue this weekend.
