THE National Works Agency (NWA) reopened most roads including the Bog Walk Gorge yesterday, following last week’s heavy rains, but encouraged motorists to exercise continued caution, since new potholes have increased the possibility of accidents.

However, where roads have been flooded, such as the Middle Quarters main road in St Elizabeth, people will just have to wait until the water has run off. In St Thomas, the Yallahs Ford remains closed, as the Yallahs River is in spate.

Meanwhile, the Meteorological Office lifted the flash flood warning for central and western parishes, but with intermittent rainfall still expected this week, and more than 50 people still in shelters, Jamaica is not yet out of the woods.

Director-general of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), Ronald Jackson, said yesterday that his team would be monitoring communities – including Chigwell in Hanover and Bull Bay in St Andrew – which were pummelled by the rains.

“There are some critical areas that will be monitored, such as Chigwell and the forest situation, which is unfolding in Hanover where the water levels are rising. That will be monitored from a technical standpoint by the Water Resources Authority,” he told the Sunday Observer. “It will be monitored from our end as well as from the local parish disaster committee because if it continues to rise, it has implications for the local settlements.”

Jackson noted that his office will also be monitoring Bull Bay, where the silt levels in the Chalky River may be very high.

“The rains will continue intermittently so that (Chalky River) as well as other major rivers, the levels would be very high at this time, even though we are not in a flash flood situation. So we will be monitoring it into next week and beyond,” the ODPEM boss said.

At the same time, he said the ODPEM would be looking to help those people affected by last week’s heavy rains, while they continue their relief efforts for those who were impacted by Hurricane Dean in August.

“We will continue the programme of trying to restock our supplies. This is happening in the aftermath of Dean so the recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction activities will restart and go on from next week onwards,” Jackson said.

There is still no word yet on the extent of the damage to the island’s roads and other infrastructure. The NWA’s communication and customer service manager, Stephen Shaw, said, however, that the estimates should be in by early this week.

Jackson, for his part, said he suspected the damage would be more than that incurred from the passage of Hurricane Dean – a category five system that packed winds in excess of 160 miles per hour and damaged homes, crops and infrastructure as it brushed the eastern and southern coasts of the island.

“I suspect the cost, from all indications, would be equal to, if not greater than the infrastructure damage to roads and drains sustained after Hurricane Dean,” said Jackson. “In Dean, it was mostly wind damage and only along the coastline. In this instance, it was more flood-driven damage, so you have scouring, landslides and road surfaces being totally eroded. So it could very well be more significant than what we saw in Dean, from my assessment driving around some of the areas. But I will await the information from the experts.”

Shaw attested to the fact that the damage caused by the more recent rains were extensive. But like Jackson, he would not speculate as to the overall cost.

“We do have a lot of roads that now have potholes where they didn’t have potholes,” Shaw said. “And a few roads remain impassable, such as at the Yallahs Ford, the Gorge. In St Elizabeth, there is water on the Middle Quarters main road. There is also the round-a-bout at Maggoty that is also flooded. The Maggoty River is coming over on to the road.”

Shaw said poor drainage and improper disposal of garbage mean water on Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston would take a while to

run off.

“The volume is greater than the capacity. In addition to that, the continuous disposal of garbage in the waterways resulting in them being clogged whenever the rain falls is also a big issue,” Shaw was quoted by JIS News, the state news agency.

Shaw added that it was critical that people observe road closures. Failure to do so, he said, not only puts them at risk, but also slowed the progress of repair and clean-up work.

The Golden Spring to Mount Airy, Mount Airy to Coakley in St Andrew and Bath to Bath Fountain roads in St Thomas are among those that have been reopened.

Additional reporting by JIS