File photo
Help is coming for residents in St. Thomas who have been affected by heavy rains over the past two days. Errol Greene, Secretary Manager for the St. Thomas Parish Council says a team from the Ministry of Social Security is carrying out an assessment in affected communities to provide assistance for residents.
He says several families in communities such as Dalvey, Duckenfield and Cheswick lost clothing, bedding among other items. Farmers, he said, will also be assisted.
"The team from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security has been in the affected areas since last week carrying out assessments, speaking to persons doing the investigation.
We also know that the Minister of Agriculture was out there on Thursday, along with the Member of Parliament. The Minister gave instructions to RADA and to the officers at the Minstry of Agriculture that assistance should be given to those farmers, (especially the ones) who lost everything; priority should be given to them," he said.
Meanwhile, efforts are underway by the National Works Agency (NWA) and the St. Thomas Parish Council, to allow utility companies to access main roads damaged by the heavy rain.
Mr. Greene says it is important for the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) and the National Water Commission (NWC) to quickly restore supply to residents.
After touring the affected areas in the Dalvey Division and the Port Morant Division, he says several Parish Council roads were affected.
"We saw a number of break aways on the road to Arcadia- about 19 of them (and) we have instructed that those breakaways be cleared. We've seen a number of instances where the roads have been cut in two (and) we are busily trying to put some temporary remedy to those areas. We're seeing a lot of flooding; there's still a lot of water flowing all over the area," he declared.
In the meantime, NWA Communication Manager Stephen Shaw, says the Agency will be continuing drain cleaning activities in St. Thomas on Tuesday, paying particular attention to the drain in the Dalvey community.
"We are about 75% of the way now. We've had to do some river shingle work on the Dalvey road. We did some work over the weekend, lost some of it because of the heavy rain on Monday morning, and we're back at it. Much of the activities that we're about now involves the cleaning of the drains. A lot of drain cleaning has to be done in the context of the rainfall that we experienced," he said.
He says the Airy Mount to Hampton Court main road has been re-opened.
All feeds
