Even as we feel for our neighbours in western Haiti and eastern Cuba, Jamaicans are giving thanks that they were spared the onslaught of Hurricane Ernesto.

Up to Saturday, many expert forecasters were projecting a course for the storm through the centre of Jamaica. But as it turned out, it held a more northerly course late Saturday and yesterday. The hurricane, which last night had been downgraded to a tropical storm, pushed through the Jamaica Channel which separates Jamaica and Haiti, bouncing hard against western Haiti and last night was threatening eastern Cuba.

We note with relief that up to last night even the northeastern parishes of St Mary and Portland, which would have been closest to Ernesto as it passed Jamaica, escaped damage.

After the devastation of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 and last year’s near misses and heavy rainfall that triggered catastrophic flooding in many parts, Jamaica can ill-afford much more than a close encounter this hurricane season. Given the state of our roads, many of which are still to be repaired following Ivan and last year’s several episodes, we shudder to think of the effect of anything similar anytime soon.

So it was that everyone – from the poorest Jamaicans struggling with the weight of back-to-school expenses, to agro-producers and exporters seeking to make the most of a good year for agriculture so far, to government planners desperately hoping for realisation of economic growth projections – gave a huge sigh of relief yesterday.

But of course, we are not yet in the clear. We are still at the height of what forecasters say will be a fairly active hurricane season. And while we note the claims of preparedness from several of our local authorities and agencies, we are also bothered by reports from some communities of a range of inadequacies.

We note for example, that in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth, a canal to drain the several ponds in the area of excess water during times of flooding is only half-way done, with three months remaining in the hurricane season.

And we hear the cry of parish disaster co-ordinator for Hanover, Ms Fae Headly, who told our sister publication, the Sunday Observer that most of the community centres in the parish slated to be used as emergency shelters were either in low-lying, flood-prone areas, or were uninhabitable.

“Most of them are not habitable,” Ms Headly was quoted as saying. “They are in a poor state because they have not been maintained. In some instances they don’t even have roofs.”

That’s a serious state of affairs. We do not know if, in this case, Ms Headly had previously brought the situation to the attention of the authorities. If she didn’t, she would surely be at fault.

But we suspect that the parish co-ordinator for Hanover did do her job only to be stalled by the old bogey of ‘no money’. And we wouldn’t be surprised to discover that similar situations exist elsewhere.

We feel this reprieve provided by Ernesto is an opportunity for the government and its functionaries to speedily assess the situation and find the resources to correct the inadequacies such as that in Hanover, hopefully in time for the next storm.

Where there is a will, there is a way.