Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
WATER LEVELS in New River, St. Elizabeth, rose dramatically yesterday as the parish registered strong winds and heavy rainfall during Hurricane Emily.
When The Sunday Gleaner visited the area yesterday afternoon, residents said they had been nervously watching water levels in a nearby swamp from in the morning.
Some residents, such as 59-year-old Eugalee Brown and her sister, Beverley Duncan, expressed frustration at having to move to a shelter once again. They, however, said they would do so, but would first watch to see how dangerous the water levels would get.
The sisters have had to leave their homes on four occassions due to the dangers of flooding.
Yvonne Morrison, disaster coordinator for St. Elizabeth, expressed concern that persons in New River had decided to take a wait-and-see approach.
She was also concerned that persons in New River said they were determined to go to an unofficial shelter nearby if the situation worsened. She said that shelter, the Mount Zion Church, was not high enough to protect them from flooding.
SAFETY OFFICIALS
Ms. Morrison said she and other safety officials had been unsuccessful in their attempts to get the New River residents to move.
The Sunday Gleaner was also told that seven families, comprising 30 persons, were displaced by Hurricane Emily in New Holland near Maggotty in St. Elizabeth.
Ms. Morrison said the families were being housed at the Maggotty High School. In addition, five persons, among them three children from Crane Road, had also sought shelter at the Black River Primary after heavy rainfall ripped open tarpaulin that was covering the roofs of two houses in the area. The occupants said the tarpaulin was being used to cover houses as the roofs had been blown off by Hurricane Ivan last September.
Hurricane Emily also caused storm surges as high as 14 feet at Treasure Beach.
According to Darin James of the Treasure Beach Emergency Response Team, the threat posed by the storm surges and other effects of Hurricane Emily led to the evacuation of approximately 25 guests from Jakes Hotel in the area. Mr. James said funding would now have to again be raised to repair beach erosion caused by the storm surges. Last year similar repairs cost $1 million.
