Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

Michael Alexander sits by collapsed sections of Iona Daley's home in Bull Bay, St. Andrew, yesterday. Daley's house was destroyed by Hurricane Dean and recent rains which have triggered landslides, eroded roads and damaged buildings across Jamaica. - photos by Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

As JAMAICA continues to be pelted by heavy rains, Mayor of Kingston Desmond McKenzie yesterday called for some communities in Kingston and St. Andrew to be declared disaster zones.

The mayor made the call while addressing the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Area Council One meeting at the Young Women's Christian Association offices on Arnold Road in St. Andrew yesterday.

Some of the areas he suggested be declared disaster zones are: Mud Town, off the Gordon Town main road in St. Andrew; Kintyre in eastern St. Andrew; and Taylor Land in Bull Bay, St. Andrew.

McKenzie said relocation was the best option in some cases.

"If you don't relocate them, you will have to bury many of them," he said about residents in rain-ravaged areas.

Deadly mudslide

In reference to Mud Town, where a mudslide killed Laura Reid last week, McKenzie said had the previous government implemented recommendations from a task force report, which was prepared by members of the city council in 2004 after Hurricane Ivan, the unfortunate incident could have been avoided.

"What took place in Hope Pastures and Mud Town could have been prevented, but it is because it is the JLP councillors who did it (the report) why it was not accepted," he claimed.

But the mayor also used the occasion to chastise residents who dumped garbage in drains, causing flooding.

"We have people throwing old mattresses and other things in the drains. People need to understand that the country cannot tolerate that anymore," he pointed out.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com

A man looks at the colossal damage to the Yallahs ford in St. Thomas wreaked by heavy rains yesterday.