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For Carol Dunkley*, her home on Columbus Avenue in New Haven, St. Andrew, floods every time it rains, and this week, she and her neighbors expect the worst to happen again if Hurricane Beryl hits the island.
Residents living along Columbus Avenue have been dealing with severe flooding for years. They say the more trees are cut down and the more homes are built in the nearby Red Mountain and Coopers Mountain areas (some of which they can see being built every day from where they stand), the more water, waste and garbage dumped on them when it rains.
Some homeowners, tenants and former illegal occupants have moved out over the years, unhappy with the living conditions, mainly due to the constant sewage inundation and crocodiles living in the drains and the adjacent Duhaney River, in addition to the threat of flooding.
“This has become our normal. We knew the flood was coming this week. We welcomed it with open arms. We can’t pray to God, but what else can we do? We have nowhere to go. The mayor came today promising to clean the drains and fix the sewage problem before the hurricane arrives, but let’s be realistic, can he and his people fix the sewage problem in a few days? Aren’t they going to dig it out and install a new pump? The pump has already been bought, or have they sent the old one back and started over until it stopped working?” asked Dunkley, who is working with The Gleaners She sat on a bench outside a shop a few metres from the door.
“We have reached the point where we have to accept our fate here anyway. We will be flooded, so be it. Just like we have been living with the lingering foul sewage smell and sewage on the road for more than a month,” she said.
Dunkley’s Neighborhood The Gleanersof Jamaica, praying in a nearby church and hoping the hurricane would leave Jamaica.
She is a mother of four children, all of whom said they would have to stay in the water if Hurricane Beryl hits Jamaica this week as they also predict their houses will be flooded.
“Our house is as low as the roadside. Didn’t you see it? You see it. Sewage is piled up under the door, but mom knows we won’t leave,” said an innocent child The Gleaners.
‘Sad reality’
Their neighbors who live across the dirt road, some of them pig farmers who live in the informal settlement between Columbus Avenue and the Duhaney River, said they expect the Duhaney River to overflow, submerging their homes, along with their pens and hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of pigs.
“It’s a sad reality, but brother, it’s going to happen. No prayers to Christ,” one pig farmer told The Gleaners.
“What we really need is that the residential areas need to dispose of their garbage properly because all the garbage comes from the river. Look in the river if you see the exposed garbage and the culvert on the bridge at the intersection of Mandela and Washington Avenue. The garbage from the residential areas and the washout all goes here. Anyway, I’m tired of talking about it. I just live by it,” he said.
The Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) yesterday called an emergency meeting of councillors to discuss next steps to address the risk of flooding for residents of Newhaven Island and other low-lying Enterprise Zone communities if Cyclone Beryl hits.
The emergency meeting was chaired by Kingston Mayor Andrew Swaby, who said the disaster preparedness meeting was originally scheduled for July 12, but given the potential threat from Beryl, they held the meeting early to prepare for the upcoming storm.
The emergency meeting was attended by the parish disaster coordinator, the city engineer and officials from the various districts, as well as the relief department. They then visited New Haven and its surrounding communities, Harbor Avenue, Sir Florizel Glasspole Boulevard, High Holborn Street, Spanish Town Road and Eight Mile, listening to residents’ complaints and checking their clogged drains and sewage overflows.
“We have held meetings with other agencies to review their preparedness,” Swabi said in an interview after the tour.
He said with hundreds of homeless people in Kingston, KSAMC is trying to find sites such as a temporary site on Church Street in downtown Kingston that opened during the coronavirus pandemic and can accommodate about 200 people.
He said he has directed the disaster coordinator to post the phone numbers of all shelters along with the details and contact information of the shelter managers on the KSAMC’s website and social media platforms so that those in need will know where the shelters are.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Jamaica National Medical Centre, Robert Hill, said the Emergency Operations Centre will be fully operational today at the Disaster Coordinator’s Office on Hanover Street to monitor the needs of Jamaicans, particularly to locate the centre closest to them.
“The Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation is ready to try and assist as many people as possible once we are able to control the numbers and get the information,” he said.
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