A resident of Nightingale Grove, in St. Catherine, throws water from a bucket, from his house, which was flooded yet again by torrential rains, Wednesday night through to Thurdsday morning. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Gareth Manning and Gareth Davis, Gleaner Writers

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) has put all parish disaster committees across the island on alert as reports of flash flooding in some communities in sections of the island continued yesterday evening.

Ronald Jackson, director-general at ODPEM, told The Gleaner/Power106 News that his office was assessing the need to open shelters in communities affected by heavy rains across the island.

Possible evacuation

"We are looking at the issue of a possible evacuation should that (flooding) occur," Mr. Jackson said. "We are not saying that that will be necessary at this point, but we are just looking at whether that might be necessary and ensuring that we get some shelters ready for that situation and so, therefore, our resources will be concentrated on those communities affected in the northeastern belt."

He added that the ODPEM would be closely monitoring the weather conditions over the weekend.

The Met Office, yesterday, extended a flash-flood warning for low-lying and flood prone areas as several communities in Portland, St. Catherine, St. Thomas and Clarendon were affected by floods and thunder storms Wednesday night through Thursday morning. This was caused by a surface trough over Jamaica and its territorial waters.

Up to yesterday evening, teams from the National Works Agency (NWA) were still removing fallen rocks and debris from roadways in St. Thomas, Portland and St. Catherine.

Stephen Shaw, communication manager for the NWA, said while the agency had been able to clear most blocked roads, up to yesterday evening roads in Portland were still posing a challenge to the agency's work teams.

Torrential rainfall, accompanied by strong winds ravaged sections of Eastern Portland - damaging several houses, while leaving some roadways impassable to vehicular traffic.

"I lost my outside bathroom and toilet," said Robert Johnson, a resident. "The powerful breeze came on suddenly and no one could venture outside as zinc was flying everywhere from off the neighbours' houses, accompanied by thunder and lightning."

More than 10 houses lost their roofing and a variety of furniture and electrical appliances were also damaged after several homes became inundated by flood waters. Sections of the roadway leading from Long Bay to Manchioneal were only able to accommodate single lane traffic as they were partially blocked by mud, fallen trees and downed utility poles.

Meanwhile, in St. Catherine, it was another nightmare for residents of Nightingale Grove in St. Catherine as scores of residents were awakened about 11 o'clock Wednesday night by flood waters rushing into their homes. The ferocious waters left, in its wake, houses and furniture filled with mud and useless household appliances.

Fuelling the problem was a National Water Commission (NWC) wastewater plant, situated next to the community, which overflowed into the residents' homes.

President of the Nightingale Citizens Association, Samuel Clunis, said about 60 homes were flooded on Wednesday night.

According to Mr. Clunis, about 11 tributaries dump water into the Cockburn Gully, which overflows whenever it rains heavily, sending water with levels of nearly four feet into the community.

NWC water trucks were in Nightingale Grove washing mud from the homes of residents and attempting to sanitise the area.

Abbeygail Blake, a resident, told The Gleaner that the community was awakened by shouts of "flood, flood" and many responded by taking the elderly and children to safety before trying to save important documents and furniture from the raging, muddy waters.

The presence of an NWC sewage treatment plant was also responsible for flooding in the Lime Tree Grove community, also in St. Catherine. One young woman, who was cleaning sewage from her home when The Gleaner arrived, claimed residents there had been living with the problem since the 1980s.

The woman, who identified herself as Melicia, said while the pond overflows in the yards of other residents as well, she was receiving a double dose of sewage overflow as the refuse not only overflowed into her yard but also came up through her bathroom floor just underneath her toilet.

"Last night I just step off of my bed into the water, and it just, whatever you do, it just flow, flow, flow and you can see the faeces in it," she told The Gleaner.