By Keril Wright, Staff Reporter
Donna Sherman stands on a makeshift bamboo raft outside her house which is surrounded by rising water. - Photo By Keril Wright
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE NATIONAL Meteorological Service last night extended the severe weather alert for the entire island until 5 o'clock this morning.
Weather conditions remain unstable, it said, as a mid to upper-level trough continued to produce showers and thunderstorms over the western Caribbean.
Doppler radar reports confirmed that showers affected sections of all parishes yesterday. Showers and isolated thunderstorms are expected to continue over the island and its coastal waters throughout today and possibly tomorrow. Fishermen and other marine interests, the Met Service advised, should continue to exercise caution as sea conditions will deteriorate in the vicinity of showers and thunderstorms.
Three families were said to have been put in danger yesterday by rising water levels in New River, near to Santa Cruz, St. Elizabeth, while two more were preparing to relocate because of the waters which have been rising since Tuesday.
Yvonne Morrison, the parish's disaster preparedness manager, yesterday evening advised the three families, whose only way out of their homes since Tuesday has been through knee-deep water, to relocate to safer grounds.
"I have advised them to consider moving if the situation worsens," Miss Morrison told The Gleaner. She said that residents of the Packie Pond area of New River said they had been using an alternate route through Content to travel out of the community.
"The community is flood-prone and if the rains continue it is obvious many of these people will have to be relocated," she said, after a tour of the area.
She said she would be advising the St. Elizabeth Health Department to begin a mosquito control programme immediately.
"We will be monitoring this situation closely," she said.
The Gleaner was unable to get to the threatened residents yesterday but there are reports that 12 children are among the affected families.
Yesterday the roads through the community were almost impassable, raising fears that the entire area could be further affected in the event of a heavy overnight shower.
Donna Sherman said she had already moved her two children to stay with her mother in a safer area of the community.
Both Mrs. Sherman and Yvonne Malcolm, whose homes are among the worst affected, have been watching helplessly as the waters rise but are reluctant to leave their homes. They say they are afraid persons would seize the opportunity to loot.
St. Elizabeth is one of the five disaster areas resulting from the recent flood rains which have been pelting the island for the last three weeks. Damage in the parish has been estimated at $60.5 million.
