MONTEGO BAY, St James – The heavy rains that have been lashing western Jamaica over the last two days yesterday caused widespread flooding and landslippages across this section of the island.

There were also reports of motorists being robbed at gunpoint along the flooded Flankers to Montego Bay main road, but this could not be confirmed by the police.

Acting senior communications officer at the National Works Agency (NWA) Stephen Shaw, told the Observer last night that the parish of Hanover was the worst hit.

“Hanover is where we have the most problems,” Shaw said. He said a number of landslippages have occurred in that parish.

The Cascade to Flower Hill, Hopewell to Haughton Grove and Riley to Bush Mouth, as well as the Flint River to Cascade roads were reduced to single-lane traffic due to landslides.

The Hopewell to Sandy Bay mainroad, Shaw added, was blocked with water and debris.

Earlier yesterday, the heavy rains that have been pelting Hanover since Tuesday resulted in severe flooding in the Sandy Bay community.

Motorists travelling from Montego Bay to Negril had no other option than to use the hilly section of Hanover or travel via Savanna-la-Mar.

Shaw said, however, that the NWA was working assiduously to clear the blocked roads and landslippages in the parish.

In the neighbouring parish St James, there were also reports of several landslippages and blocked roads.

The Rose Hall to Montego Bay main road was blocked for several hours with flood waters and debris in the vicinity of Flankers.

In Flankers, also, several roads were eroded and houses flooded out.

One motorist told the Observer that it took him six hours to travel from Rose Hall to Montego Bay, due to the flood waters in the Flankers and Ironshore areas.

“It usually take me about 15 minutes to travel that distance, but this morning (Wednesday) it took me almost six hours because of the high waters and debris,” said the motorist.

A section of the Greenwood and Long Bay main road was also blocked, due to flooding.

There were also reports of minor land slippages along Queens Drive, John Hall and sections of Irwin in St James.

In Trelawny, more than 500 students and 15 teachers at the Granville All Age School were marooned for hours as the gully at the rear of the school overflowed its banks and dumped thousands of gallons of murky water on the institution’s premises.

“I have never seen anything like this, the water has surrounded the school and everybody here is in a state of panic,” a school teacher said in a telephone interview.

She said student and teachers managed to moved vital pieces of the school’s equipment to the upper floors of the buildings in an effort to prevent damage.

Last night junior works minister Dr Fenton Ferguson told the Observer that he would be urging the finance minister, Dr Omar Davies, to disburse the $46 million that was approved by Cabinet earlier this year to tackle the problem of flooding in St James.

“I am definitely going to raise the matter of the money with Omar (Davies) because it is badly needed to tackle the flooding problems in St James,” Ferguson said.

At the same time, councillor for the Flankers Division, Charles Sinclair, said Flankers should be declared a disaster area.

“I think that Flankers should be made a disaster area in light of the severe damage that has been done to the roads and houses due to the heavy rains,” Sinclair said.

According to the Jamaica Labour Party councillor, the heavy rains over the last two days have resulted in several tonnes of silt being deposited in the community, the flooding out of homes and severe damage to road surfaces.