FLOOD waters from Tropical Storm Wilma yesterday forced more than 100 people into shelters in the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew and St Catherine as heavy rain soaked most parishes.

The storm, said the National Meteorological Service, was expected to dump more rain on the island today and tomorrow, with the possibility of further flooding.

Last night, Wilma was 320 kilometres southwest of Negril, drifting slowly to the south at a mere four kilometres per hour on a path that would take it near the Cayman Islands. But forecasters projected that the storm could further develop into a powerful hurricane, heading either to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula or the Gulf of Mexico.

“It is expected to take a westward turn over the next 24 hours and strengthen while doing so,” said duty forecaster at the Met Office, Adrian Shaw.

According to Shaw, moderate to heavy showers and thunderstorms, as well as isolated downpours are expected across the island into tomorrow.

“There is a possibility that things will clear up between Thursday and Friday,” he told the Observer.

Meanwhile, people living in communities near the Rio Cobre were last night asked to move to higher ground as the river was in spate and posed a danger.

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) said shelters were opened at the Portmore Heart Academy and Central Village Community Centre in St Catherine, and in Kingston at the Edith Dalton James High School, Whitehall Community Centre, Dunrobin Primary School and Blackwood Terrace shelter, off Red Hills Road.

The OPDEM was unable to give a breakdown of the number of people in each shelter, but the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) disaster preparedness office said that 25 persons were staying at the Blackwood Terrace shelter.

The KSAC said that as a result of flooding at Riverside Drive in New Haven seven adults and a child had to be evacuated yesterday morning and given shelter at the Edith Dalton James High School.

At the same time, seven residents of Riverton City were sheltering at Rock of Holiness Church, Riverton City, while two people from Bull Bay were sheltering at the St Bendict’s School at Seven Miles, Bull Bay.

At Maxfield Avenue, several yards were under water, though none of the residents appeared ready to vacate.

“The water come right up to the top step,” said Hyacinth Jones, a resident, who pointed to accumulated water in her yard. Older-type homes with cellars appeared to have fared better than more recently constructed homes, as the elevation kept the rising waters at bay.

The flooding forced the health ministry to scale down operations at the Spanish Town Hospital’s maternity ward.

Pregnant mothers who were expected to deliver at that hospital were redirected to the Victoria Jubilee Hospital. “.Patients are urged to leave home at the earliest sign of labour,” the OPDEM said.

Water from Burke and Henderson roads flowed on to the compound of the hospital, causing the flooding, the ODPEM said. A team from the National Works Agency was yesterday pumping water from the hospital compound.

The rains also caused flooding in several areas of Clarendon and the ODPEM said that it had received unconfirmed reports of persons being trapped by rising waters. Several landslides were also reported.

The areas in Clarendon that were said to flooded include the Penguin Key to Chapleton Road area, Pennants Wood, Sandy Bay to Free Town, Chapleton Road to Longville and Harris Street in May Pen.

Both the Bog Walk Gorge and one of the alternative routes through Barry were also blocked by flood waters and rocks yesterday, and several land slippages were reported along the Sligoville roadway, the other alternative route.

Landslides were also reported in Manchester and Gordon Town. In Manchester, the Christiana to Aliston road was blocked, and the road from Dump to Moravia was reduced to one lane as a result of a large landslide.

A NWA team was dispatched to clear a landslide at Gordon Town in rural St Andrew.

A section of the Mandela Highway was also blocked by flood waters, while major roads in several parishes were also blocked or reduced to single-lane traffic because of landslides. Among these was the Junction Road in St Mary.

“We have dispatched teams to carry out clearing operations on the roadways, and we are working to have access restored to the affected communities in the shortest possible time,” said Petra-Kene Williams, the acting communication manager at the NWA. She said, however, that crews from the agency were limited by poor visibility caused by fog, particularly in the hilly interior of the island, and torrential rainfall.

Yesterday, Lauren Hepburn, a resident of 28 Gore Terrace, off Constant Spring Road in Kingston, stared nervously from her driveway overlooking a section of the Sandy Gully, which had chunks of its retaining wall and part of its floor broken away by angry waters.

“In 2001 the entire foundation of the retaining wall and a large section of my driveway washed away up to the outside wall of the house,” she said. “There were cracks in the gully wall and during heavy rains water washed the entire base away.”

She said repeated pleas, including letters to the NWA, had produced only promises, and her landlord had to repair the retaining wall with his own resources back then.

This time she said the problem was exacerbated by an illegal sand miner who scooped away sand that had accumulated in the cracks of the gully, making it easier for the raging waters to get at the foundation of the wall.

“However, I wouldn’t say it was the sand mining alone, it is the lack of maintenance that has caused this. We made numerous calls to the NWA and we wrote to Mr Ivan Anderson, the head of the NWA, but no one has shown up,” said Hepburn.

Other residents supported Hepburn’s claim, and said that they feared a repeat of the 2001 situation or worse.

“There was a 20-foot chasm in the driveway right up to the house,” said one resident, who declined to be named.