Widespread flooding in Old Harbour region

The flooding is as a result of a Tropical Wave on the tail end of Hurricane Beryl, a massive category four storm that left death and destruction in her wake last Wednesday.

Weather experts had warned that with the earth already saturated flooding was highly probably in particularly for flood-prone areas. And so it proved last night for many residents here in southwestern region of St Catherine and other southern parishes.

Sections of Nightingale Grove, Bushy Park, Colbeck, Sharper Lane, Big Pond and Lafe Lane all experienced flooding, due to persistent rain within the last 48 hours.

The disaster capped a difficult week for these residents and many Jamaicans across the island with majority of the island without electricity, water and internet following the passage of Beryl.

“We are fully immobilized and need help. We need at least a temporary sturdy ‘walk-foot’ bridge until a permanent fix can be done,” one Bushy Park resident told Old Harbour News. 

Roughly more than 500 residents living on the eastern side of the community will have no option but to use the Amity Hall route, a vast farmland control by the state. But this route comes with its own challenges as the roadway is built of marl, lined with heavy forestry and without any power infrastructure that would encourage motorist to drive there at nights.

In Sharper Lane another resident contends that the situation is caused by poor engineering.

“A few years back the government did some renovations on the gully in Sharper Lane, Old Harbor but they did not remove the old water channel before adding new pipes which cause the water to overflow onto the road and surrounding areas whenever there is heavy rainfall completely destroying my neighbour’s fence and flooding his home,” she said. “Last night with the heavy rain fall it destroyed the roadway making it unable for cars to pass and several members of the community almost drowned trying to cross it last night as there is no light in Sharper Lane almost five days now.”

Some 60 houses in the community of Nightingale Grove have also been impacted by waters from the Coburn Gully. It is one of the biggest flooding to occur in decades despite flood mitigation works being done on the gully in the past.

According to several of the world’s leading scientists this year could be one of the most active hurricane seasons on record in the Atlantic, with forecast of more powerful storms like Beryl to come.

Meantime, the island’s main essential service providers say their engineers are working assiduously to normalize service in the affected communities within the shortest possible time.
For those impacted the most, their patience is wearing thin as they continue to bear without water, electricity and telecommunications connectivity.