Copyright jamaica-gleaner
Had Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Kingston, Jamaica’s capital and most populated city, the effects of the Category 5 disaster would have been far more cataclysmic, structural and environmental experts have noted. This as the island awaits a full assessment of the impact of the hurricane on the more hard-hit western parishes. After a lengthy delay at sea, keeping much of the island on edge since last week, Hurricane Melissa, according to the US National Hurricane Center, made landfall near New Hope, Westmoreland, with wind speeds of up to 185 mph. As the disaster pummelled those areas, rendering far lighter winds and rainfall in the capital city, Kingstonians tuned in to weather broadcasts and social media reports relaying reports of massive flooding, heavy winds, and the overall trauma of what the Meteorological Service of Jamaica (Met Service) warned was the island’s worst disaster. Many, particularly those who opted to stay in communities from which the Government had ordered immediate evacuation, praised the heavens for sparing them another big hit akin to those of hurricanes Gilbert, Ivan, and Beryl, which have struck the island since 1988. Many more lives would have been lost and impacted, they charged. “Can you imagine if that hurricane had hit Kingston or Portmore with more than 800,000 people? It would have been a severe disaster of flooding, loss of roofs, lives, and far more people, and the economy, to a much larger extent, would have been impacted,” said Christopher Burgess, civil engineer, land developer, and managing director of CEAC Outsourcing. Explaining that climate change projections show storm increases by 20 per cent to 50 per cent, Burgess maintained that the drains in the capital city are undersized by two to six times; and that with years of shoddy maintenance and lack of comprehensive upgrades, damages caused from such conditions could multiply exponentially. “There would certainly be a lot of urban flooding, and then we have so much poverty in Kingston, so many zinc roofs and infrastructure that could never withstand a Category 5 hurricane directly. We see videos of entire hospital roofs coming off in the other parishes,” said Burgess. “So you could at least expect a 40 per cent to 50 per cent loss of roof in the capital,” continued Burgess, noting that most of the urban flooding hotspots, including the problematic Marcus Garvey Drive, Payne Land, and Duhaney Park, would be under water. “We have been spared, but at the same time St Elizabeth and Westmoreland haven’t been spared,” said Burgess, expressing dismay for Jamaicans affected in those primary hit parishes, and also those impacted in the eastern islands. NEED DRAINAGE MASTER PLAN Acknowledging that there has been some amount of work, Burgess stressed that what Kingston needed is a “living drainage master plan – an inventory of culverts, inlets, and gullies at street level to guide new development projects”. Meanwhile, National Environment and Planning Agency CEO Leonard Francis, whose organisation has been doing extensive preparation and sensitisation work in time for the hurricane, agreed that the implications may have been more dire had the Corporate Area been the hardest hit, but cautioned that a full assessment of the damage to the western parishes is needed before a full comparison can be made. “Let’s face it. Kingston and St Andrew have the majority of the population but, coming out of Hurricane Gilbert, we learnt a whole lot of things. We are having better construction, better monitoring of the construction, and we are ensuring that even where persons are constructing. Generally, we have been more rigorous that the standards are being met,” charged Francis. “But then we also have a lot of buildings that are illegal, and then there are areas where people are actually struggling to recover from the hurricane last year. Then there are others who took chances and have built their houses close to rivers and so they are having multiple impacts of both wind and flooding. That is something we need to ensure we address going forward, out of the hurricane,” he said. Hours before Hurricane Melissa made landfall, vendors inside the Coronation Market and its environs in downtown Kingston were celebrating no loss of lives or property, and minimal infrastructure damage. Their celebration was mirrored in Port Royal, where residents took to the streets joyously, happy that once again they had weathered the storm mostly unscathed, even in the face of a government order to evacuate the community. corey.robinson@gleanerjm.com
