Christmas cancelled - Property damaged, livestock killed as flood rains hammer Westmoreland

WESTERN BUREAU:

Scores of residents of Three Miles River watched helplessly as their homes were flooded as torrential rainfall walloped sections of Westmoreland on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, resulting in major damage to houses and other property and death to livestock.

Strathbogie, Georges Plain and Amity were also badly affected.

Yesterday, homeowners, mainly women, were still mopping up floodwaters and counting their losses, worlds away from millions of other Jamaicans indulging in the joy of Christmas festivities.

Sophia Spence, a chicken farmer, told The Gleaner that in addition to significant damage to a section of her home and the loss of household articles, dozens of her livestock were killed by the floodwaters.

The community, she said, was in need of urgent help from the authorities to address the flooding misery.

“It happen every year and damage wi place,” said Spence. “Dis is not di first or second time wi get flood out. It happen last year, and the year before, and nobody nah come deal wid di problem. Mi lose a whole heap a chickens, and mi don’t know how much more could dead,” Spence added, revealing that the water was knee-high.

Spence said that her children were terrified as they watched floodwaters rise to the level of their beds. The livestock farmer said that more than 50 houses were inundated in her community.

Flooding has become a perennial problem for the communities, Spence said, but they usually suffered distress earlier in the year, not during the Yuletide season.

The heavy rains, she said, had basically washed out the merriment of Christmas.

“Wi neva prepare fe dis kinda disaster at all … . It going to run inna millions a dollars because people lose motor vehicles, livestock, crops, houses and household items,” said Spence.

While noting that councillor for the Frome division, Rudolph Uter, had visited them, the residents said that they have not received any assistance.

“Many people a suffer cause a de flood and dem nah get no help from nobody round yah … . If dem (the authorities) did a clean de river, the water wouldn’t overflow de bank dem,” said Neil Taylor, another resident, who was affected by the flooding.

Uter acknowledged that the flooding has been a long-standing problem which he and others have sought to address, but without much success. He said that the responsibility lay not with the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation but with the National Works Agency.

“Just two days before the disaster, I was in Kingston having a meeting with the deputy CEO of the National Works Agency, and that matter came up. It also came up today (Friday) at a special meeting with the minister of local government, at the [Ministry] of Local Government in Kingston.”

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