Flooding in Montego Bay

Flash flood warnings were issued for areas in the Montego Bay area on Tuesday as a result of heavy rainfalls. A 68-year-old woman was swept away in the flood waters and her 12-year-old granddaughter was found dead. In video footages on the internet the woman’s 71-year-old husband and 25-year-old daughter was rescued from the flood waters. The rescuers tried hard to save everyone but the current in the water was too strong and the rest of the family was swept away.

Residents in the community say that most areas in the town are dump up lands and the whenever it rains, it expected to be flooded quickly. Dump up lands are areas that are built up by landfill with garbage or with soil. Areas in the town section of Montego Bay including Westgate and Uptown were flooded shortly after the rain started to pour. Most people could not escape fast enough and were trapped where they were.

Christina Henry, resident of Montego Bay says while the flooding took place she was at work and by 8pm the waters had ran off and she could have gotten a taxi home. Henry says ‘all a di town flood out, but di water don’t settle, it run off fast and dem still a search for the lady.’ Henry continues to state that there are sections of the town that have up warning signs which tells people to avoid certain areas when it rains.

When asked if this is the first this has happened Henry says it is an on-going problem every time there are heavy rains some part of Montego Bay or some parts of the parish of St James is flooded. ‘The roads dem build good, but all a di town dump up so flooding ago always happen.’ Henry also referred to a park that was built called Harmony and people refer to it as dump up. 

Obafemi Smith, sales representative at a call centre says the flood water did not do much damage and by Wednesday businesses were back in full swing. ‘The town also has houses and some of these houses may have been flooded as he saw some people cleaning off their verandas,’ says Smith. ‘The roads were impassable, the cars were stuck but not covered and it would have been difficult for low cars to go through the waters,’ Smith continued. He says he does not expect rainfall as he watches the weather report on his phone closely and sees that the precipitation levels have dropped.