New Haven readies for tempest
Published:Wednesday | November 3, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Laura Redpath, Senior Gleaner Writer
The ominous sound of the shovel scraping on Riverside Drive in the St Andrew community of New Haven was one sign of preparation as Tropical Storm Tomas approaches Jamaica's waters.
Michael Salmon was bent over a puddle of stagnant water as he worked at clearing a drain in his community.
"Is the first me ever see water come so high," he said, referring to the floods brought on by the September depression which became Tropical Storm Nicole.
"The water reach right here so," he said, pointing to his knee. "Some people busy a worry 'bout crime. All we haffi worry about a water."
Salmon, 32, is a father of one child, whom his girlfriend took with her when she moved away from the New Haven community following the passage of Nicole.
"They left, but I'm more comfortable here," said Salmon, who has been residing in New Haven for his entire life.
Yearly drain cleaning
He told The Gleaner that cleaning the drains himself is an annual chore.
"Every year is the same thing," he said. "Is lately since (Hurricane) Gilbert (1988) that things get so bad."
The tropical depression left huge craters in the roads and, since its passage, puddles of water now containing oil to ward off mosquitoes.
Randwick Hendricks described instances of red dirt flowing along with the rushing water in the Duhaney gully.
"The gully is the real problem," he said.
The Duhaney gully yesterday was alive with water at a high level, seemingly at a standstill. A dug-out refrigerator is used to shuttle persons across the water from one side of the gully to the other.
"The tunnels are full of debris, no water can flow out," he said, pointing to the overgrowth at the mouths of all three drains.
Ronald Jackson, director general of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, was frank in assessing the situation.
"People should not be living there. People should not be living on the banks at all," he told The Gleaner yesterday.
"We normally have to evacuate persons from the area."
Not leaving
Resident Fiona Stewart said she had no intention of leaving her home.
"Bwoy, when you evacuate, a so di tief dem like it."
Stewart used a black marker to make note of how high the last flood waters had risen, to just over two feet in her home. She made sure to put her valuables, such as kitchen appliances and her bed, on building blocks and stones.
"That way, the water not getting in," she said.
Next door to Stewart, Sharnalee Bradford's house was perched on a foundation made entirely of rocks.
"Me nuh like leave me house," she said.
However, Bradford admitted that if the water starts to rise she will take her child and evacuate.