‘Everything is a mess’

PORT MARIA, St Mary:

The return of sunshine Wednesday only served to reveal that dark times were not yet over for Port Maria after three days of torrential rainfall, which triggered widespread devastation and floods, left sections of the St Mary capital under mounds of muck.

Grateful for a respite from the inclement weather, dozens of flood-stricken residents and business operators spent much of yesterday hauling waterlogged belongings outside, scraping away mud, and pushing out murky water, seeking to determine what could be salvaged as clean-up moved into high gear. The anguish was evident on their faces.

The Port Maria Primary School remained closed as emergency teams worked feverishly to rid classrooms of mud and other forms of debris, hoping that classes will be able to resume on location as early as next Monday.

On Tuesday, students and teachers were forced to seek refuge on the second floor after the school yard and some classrooms on the ground floor were flooded.

Yesterday, St Mary Central Member of Parliament Dr Morais Guy, who visited the school and other areas to survey the extent of the damage and dislocation, said the situation at the school was being treated with urgency.

“The school yard is covered in several inches of muck. The fire department assisted with washing out the classrooms, and parents and teachers were on hand to assist with the cleaning-up exercise,” he told The Gleaner.

“If we work over continuously into the weekend to clean the lower classrooms, then school could resume on Monday. Even if the lower classrooms are not ready, and the school yard is washed out, we could resume classes for the upper school,” he added.

Guy said that some 250 households in the Port Maria area had suffered damage, and residents were having a difficult time picking up the pieces.

“The water was so high. In some instances, four to five feet high,” he said of Tuesday’s floods. “And it wasn’t just water, there was mud and muck. ... Now that the water has subsided, there are areas where there is six inches of muck.”

A resident of Mona district, who gave her name only as Doreen, told The Gleaner that it was friend who alerted her to the unfolding disaster on Tuesday as she was not at home during the heavy rainfall.

“By di time mi run come down here and take out the pickney dem and carry dem up pon the beach, a pure water. Mi couldn’t get fi go back in. Everything is a mess,” she said. “Dis yah one yah (flooding) come in like it worse than di one before. Wi coulda save something di last one, but dis, wi couldn’t get to move nothing. It really bad.”

Several residents reported losing television sets, microwaves, DVD players, mattresses, computers, phones, tablets, standing fans, and other items.

Staff from the Ministry of Labour and Social Security were also out conducting assessments to see what assistance it could provide to persons affected.

Port Maria Mayor Richard Creary described the conditions in the seaside town and its environs as challenging, especially for commercial operators, residents, students, and vendors occupying the arcade.

“Ninety per cent of businesses in Port Maria have been affected. The damage is rather severe. It is going to be a long haul in terms of this recovery. The clean-up will take several days,” Creary said Wednesday.

“Apart from businesses, the number of homes that are damaged and flooded [is significant]. Persons don’t have anything – no dry clothes; no dry mattresses; furniture floating; fridge, TV, everything mash up. It is a serious situation.”

Noting that some roads had been extensively damaged, the mayor said that teams from the St Mary Municipal Corporation were carrying out assessments.

“The seawall that has existed for decades, there are areas that are being undermined that we will have to quickly [address] because once that wall goes, then the sea will come in and eat at the road,” he said, referring to Main Street.

“And there is another section that has totally collapsed. We are in the process of doing the estimates to seek the funding to have those corrected as well. It is a devastating situation. This is the worst flood in Port Maria that I can recall.”

gareth.davis@gleanerjm.com