Claudine HousenStaff Reporter

Motorists navigate through rising water along St. James Street in Montego Bay while heavy rains lashed the city last week. - Claudine Housen/Staff Photographer

As the nation readies for a rough hurricane season, members of the western region's disaster preparedness arm say the necessary measures have been put in place to provide relief in the event of a hurricane.

"We are as prepared as prepared can be," says Amanda Thompson, acting St. James parish disaster coordinator. "All our shelter managers are trained in shelter management, some as first aiders as well, and preparations are being made to house food items and other emergency items."

Strong support

Thompson discloses that she has been receiving strong support from the private sector in areas such as manpower and communication. "We have heavy-duty equipment cranes, trucks and all those things on standby. We also have quite a number of persons who are willing and ready to assist," she tells The Sunday Gleaner.

"For the communication department, we have our emergency lines ready from Cable and Wireless, and MiPhone is chipping in and might assist with the new technical phones they have - "push to talk'. Also, Flow has indicated an interest in assisting," Thompson adds.

The acting St. James disaster coordinator is calling on citizens to do their part and take care of the shelters as it is becoming increasingly difficult to get entities to give up their facilities for this purpose.

"A lot of church halls and community centres were used the last time and people vandalised these places. Because of that, they refuse to give it to be used again. People burnt the chairs and benches as firewood and defecated in their church halls," she reports.

Major drains

Reflecting on the flooding that took place in the Second City on Wednesday, Thompson says all the major drains have been cleaned prior to Labour Day and that process is a continuous one. But she is calling on persons to remove all old cars, trucks and other debris from their premises and have them taken away by the garbage trucks so that they would not block drains.

Meanwhile, Stephen Shaw, of the National Works Agency, has sought to assure the public that the agency is actively looking at ways of alleviating the contentious matter of the continuous flooding of Queens Drive in Montego Bay.