SECTIONS of St Catherine took a battering from flood waters for the second time in two weeks, as heavy rains associated with a surface trough lashed parts of the country between Thursday night and yesterday.

This time the damage was most serious in the Fairview Park and Friendship Meadows housing schemes, where more than 40 homes were washed out.

“I am sick and tired of this. Every time rain falls we get flooded out. They built the scheme and never think about putting in proper drainage and now we are paying the price,” Monica Wally-Smith told the Observer as she pushed muddy water out of her living room in Fairview Park, located just outside of Spanish Town, the St Catherine capital.

All the furniture and important documents in Wally-Smith’s Fairview Park house were damaged by the flood waters.

Yesterday, residents of Fairview Park said the lack of drainage, coupled with a small pond in the community, has made their lives hell whenever it rains heavy.

“The water has nowhere to go so it just backs up in our homes,” Wally-Smith said.

A waterline measuring roughly 16 inches could be seen on the affected houses in the community as residents tried to salvage their possessions.

In the neighbouring settlement of Friendship Meadows the cry was the same: improper drainage.

“It hard fi pay how much million and den haffi suffer like this everytime God send him rain. Why dem couldn’t just do the thing good and done?” one resident, obviously drained from the clean-up, said.

Some residents were, however, thankful that the rains subsided because their worst fears were not realised.

“If the rain did continue fall even one hour more our homes would be covered so even though my house flood it could have been much worse,” one woman said.

There was also flooding along the Spanish Town bypass in the vicinity of March Pen Road, Bushy Park, St John’s Road and Lloyd’s Pen.

Nightingale Grove, a community which is converted into a large pond whenever heavy showers fall, was spared this time around.

“We were a bit lucky this time but we are living on a chalk line. We know what awaits us when the rain falls,” a resident of Nightingale Grove said.

There was also flooding in sections of Spanish Town Road, New Haven and to a lesser extent in some parts of Duhaney Park, all in the Corporate Area.

In the meantime, the National Meteorological Service yesterday extended a flash flood warning for all parishes until 5:00 am today, warning that the surface trough would continue to produce heavy rainfall over sections of Jamaica and its coastal waters.

Residents were asked to be on the lookout for fast rising rivers and motorists warned not to attempt to cross fords or flooded streets.

Fishermen and other marine interests were also cautioned about going out to sea as choppy seas and thunderstorms may be encountered.