Double jeopardy

BUFF BAY, Portland:

BUSINESSMAN AUBREY Tobin is now smarting from a heavy loss following the collapse of a section of the building at his B&A Hardware and block factory in Buff Bay, Portland, during the passage of Tropical Storm Grace on Tuesday.

Tobin, who is suffering a second loss in less than three months, has not yet recovered from an incident in late May of this year, when a storm surge resulted in the destruction of more than 3,000 building blocks, which collapsed after a piece of the property was undermined by the sea.

“This is like double jeopardy and I am beginning to feel the real effects of back-to-back losses,” Tobin told The Gleaner on Wednesday.

“In May of this year, I lost thousands of building blocks, and a retaining wall at the back of building was demolished during high tide and rough sea. I also lost a section of the building and I was forced to dump truckloads of boulders on the property, so as to prevent further undermining. Having spent more than $600,000 for remedial work and struggling to maintain my workers, along comes this storm, which has dealt me another crippling blow,” Tobin lamented.

“The entire section of the building where we store building blocks was destroyed by the storm, even though it was constructed using mostly metal poles. This was not an ordinary storm, as the entire roofing of that section was blown on to our main storage building – creating further damage to that section of the roofing, which is yet to be assessed. My loss this time around could run into millions of dollars, not to mention the repairs,” he added.

The businessman, who pointed out that he had to absorb the decline in sales brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, noted that his cries for assistance from the powers that be to construct a sea wall at the rear of his building to prevent further soil erosion and undermining of his property has fallen on deaf ears.

“Despite my losses, I still see it as a definite need and responsibility to maintain my 14 workers, who are a part of the business, and have families to feed and bills to pay. They have been with me since the inception of hardware and block factory more than 10 years ago. It is going to be rather difficult going forward, and this is the time that I really need the help, especially to protect my business from the sea,” Tobin further said.

So far, the Government of Jamaica has spent approximately $150 million to construct sea walls along the coastlines in Buff Bay and Annotto Bay in an attempt to halt erosion along those corridors.