THE Office of the Public Defender has launched an investigation into complaints by Mayor of Port Maria Councillor Bobby Montague, who is seeking redress for residents and business owners in the parish who sustained losses as a result of last month’s floods.

“We are hopeful that you will be able to assist the people of St Mary to get compensated for this event and help us identify and have criminal charges laid against those responsible,” Montague wrote in the letter, submitted on November 29 to Public Defender Earl Witter.

On Thursday, November 23, almost the entire town of Port Maria and several other St Mary communities were flooded, following several hours of continuous rainfall.

In Port Maria, which was the worst-affected, residents pointed to the poor construction of a new bridge over the Outram River as the cause of the flooding, but the National Works Agency, the government body responsible for the construction of the North Coast Highway, of which the new bridge is a part, has flatly denied that its work was to blame.

In his letter to the public defender, however, Montague pointed not just to Port Maria, but to Jack’s River, Stewart Town and Woodside, communities he said were all victims of the new highway.

The NWA, Montague alleged, ignored the protestations of the parish council and of the people of Port Maria when the Outram River bridge was being constructed, and even went as far as to assure residents that the town would and could not be flooded. He added, the river was not cleaned despite money being earmarked for the project by MP Neil McGill, and that in Stewart Town the runoff of flood water directly affected residents.

Since the floods, the government, through the Ministry of Local Government and Environment and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, have been assisting residents with relief packages that include cash grants of up to $10,000, food and clothing. Still, residents and business owners, supported by Montague, believe that a legal case can be made for more substantial compensation by the government.

Last month’s rain wreaked havoc on roads and rivers in the parishes of St Mary, St Ann and Portland. The rains were responsible for the loss of one life in Portland and for millions of dollars in damage due to landslides as well as to flooded homes and businesses.

The NWA, while admitting that its construction works did contribute to the flooding, has absolved itself of responsibility, claiming instead that the flooding and other water damage was caused by the unusually heavy rainfall, coupled with the dumping of garbage by residents into rivers, streams and gullies.