Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

More rains are expected to pelt the island today, as the country continues to experience unstable weather conditions caused from a trough which is currently over Jamaica and the central Caribbean.

Yesterday, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), reported instances of flooding and land slippages in several parishes across the island.

In Clarendon, flooding was reported in the Race Track area and in the Big Pond area of St. Catherine. In St. Andrew, there were reports of a landslide along the Papine to Redlight main road, in the vicinity of Griffin Gully.

The ODPEM said water was rising at the ford across the Yallahs River at Mahogany Vale in St. Thomas.

Meanwhile, the roadway between Mount Charles and Mahogany Vale was reported blocked by a boulder. Only small cars could access the route yesterday as the roadway was said to be inundated.

An improvement in the weather conditions is expected after Thursday, said the Met Office.

Active hurricane season

Meanwhile as the hurricane season commences on June 1, meteorologists are already predicting an active hurricane season, with as many as 10 hurricanes, with three to five of them being major.

According to the Uniited States government's top climate agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, there could be 13 to 17 tropical storms this season, with seven to 10 developing into hurricanes.

Three to five could be major at Category Three or higher, with winds of over 110 mph (177 kmh), the agency said in its annual forecast.

Ronald Jackson, director general of the ODPEM, said the island was ready for Category One to Two hurricanes.

"... Maybe (also) aspects of a Category Three event," he told The Gleaner yesterday. "Beyond that we are ready to do whatever we can do with resources we have but when you start to get into Category Three, we are going to need external support to deal with that."

He, however, expressed concern with the state of a number of drains islandwide, which he said needed to be addressed.

"At the agency level we are still grappling with some minor issues, we are a little better off than we were two, three years ago but there are things that we still need to get a grip on," he said.

Mr. Jackson said there should be consistent drain cleaning and maintenance across the island.

"We are aware that there are resource constraints but we really need to see how best we can manipulate the very resources we have towards addressing the parish issues," he said.

He said capacity-wise, the country was much better off than previous years, which he has attributed to the preparations for the recently concluded Cricket World Cup.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com