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By Halshane Burke/Kimone Witter
Mayor of Mandeville Donovan Mitchell is expressing concern about the mounds of debris left along the sides of the roads following drain cleaning exercises.
Mayor Mitchell says debris was removed from the drains and simply left on the roadways, blocking soft shoulders.
He says, with the current rains, the drains could easily become reclogged and lead to flooding.
"What has happened is that they have been using equipment to clean the drainage and clean the banks on the Winston Jones Highway, but they have put them in heaps or mounds. And so with this sort of rain and all that, you would imagine that some of these debris would be washing down on the roadway, creating some problems."
He urged those carrying out drain cleaning activities remove the debris from the roadways, "so that the water can run off in the drain...and get to the place that it is set for ponding".
Mayor Mitchell said the municipal corporation will have to move swiftly to address the number of roadways transformed into streams with the ongoing rains. These include Newleigh Road, DeCarteret Road, and Kendal Road.
Flooding in Alligator Pond
In the meantime, several sections of Alligator Pond in Manchester have been flooded due to heavy rains over the last two days. The flooding has been blamed on poor maintenance of drains.
Small farmer, Marie, who lives in New Forest said her property was flooded and she lost crops, like cucumbers, animals, as well as material she recently bought for repairs on her house.
Marie said she has been calling for the drains to be cleaned for some time now, to no avail.
"Long time mi report it. Mi put it pon social media, mi guh dung deh go report it, mi tell everybody bout it," she said, lamenting "Mi two load a marl gone. Mi just a fix mi house; the coarse load weh mi buy gone, the fine load... everything gone."
The Meteorological Service has said the outer bands of Hurricane Helene are expected to continue producing unstable weather across the island.
A Flash Flood Watch for low-lying and flood-prone areas of St. Thomas, Kingston, St. Andrew, St. Catherine, Clarendon, Manchester, St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover, and St. James was extended until midday Thursday.
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