Students of Catherine Hall Primary School make their way home after the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management ordered schools closed due to flooding in some areas of St James. - photo by Adrian Frater

Western Bureau:

Residents of some sections of Tucker, St James, were marooned in their homes for hours yesterday, as flood waters associated with heavy rains, which have been lashing the parish since late Monday night left them trapped.

"We can't come out," shouted a resident across the flooded area that separated her home from the main road. "We can't go out to work and we can't go out to get food."

Rain intensified

The rain, which has been falling intermittently for the last three days, intensified between late Monday night and early yesterday morning, disrupting normal life, causing landslides and forcing the closure of at least one school in Montego Bay.

At the problematic John's Hall Quarry, it was a case of history repeating itself as a huge chunk of the roadway broke away. Other roads in proximity to that area experienced damage.

Water halfway up trees

On the farm at Barnett Estate Limited, which runs adjacent to the Irwin main road, there were large pools of water, some reaching as high as halfway up trees, and the nearby Barnett River rose to within inches of the main road.

Nearby, at the Howard Cooke Primary School, located in the Catherine Hall area, classes were dismissed shortly after 10 a.m. on the advice of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) as the Barnett River came perilously close to breaching its banks.

"I got a call from the ODPEM instructing us to dismiss school and send home the children," said Mavis Moses, the principal at Howard Cooke Primary. "We sent out an advisory, via the media, and the parents have been coming in to collect their children."

Montego Bay Mayor Charles Sinclair said the council's disaster team and the superintendent of roads and works at the parish council had been out on the streets, all morning, assessing the situation.

"As soon as the team gets back in, we will evaluate the situation and make a determination as to what action we will need to take," Sinclair said. "As is customary, we stand ready to offer whatever assistance we can."

adrian.frater@gleanerjm.com