SEVERAL persons in the northern and north-eastern parishes of St Ann, St Mary and Portland had to flee their homes yesterday as widespread floods and landslides associated with a surface trough over the south-central Caribbean threatened life and property.

An emergency shelter was opened at the Windsor Castle All-age in Portland, but up to press time it was not clear how many occupants were there.

Parish disaster co-ordinator for St Ann, Alvin Clarke, told the Observer that shelters would be opened to facilitate residents in Great Pond and Buckfield in Ocho Rios, who could not enter their homes because of high flood water.

Clarke said, too, that his team would continue to monitor the rising waters at the lake in Moneague which began rising again nearly two weeks ago, after rising to dangerous and unprecedented levels earlier this year before receding.

In St Ann, the Brown’s Town Fire Brigade evacuated residents of Scarlet Hall as well as students of the Runaway Bay Basic School after rising waters invaded their dwellings and the children’s school house. An entire Operation Pride housing development in Seville was also reportedly flooded.

Several roads in the parish were also flooded, including the road through Fern Gully but it has since been reopened. Also in St Ann, landslides were reported along the Chester, Dunn’s Ville and Lime Hall main roads, the latter of which is cut off in two areas. The road to Hamstead, near Runaway Bay, was also cut off by landslides.

Last night, Mayor for St Ann’s Bay Delroy Giscombe described damage caused by the flooding in the parish as ‘pretty grave’.

Giscombe said it could take a long time to rebuild the roads in the parish damaged by flood water. He said yesterday that he had already spoken with the minister with responsibility for local government, Robert Montague, who promised to release money to start road repairs as soon as the weather allowed. An assessment of the damage, the mayor said, should begin today.

In Portland, the police reported that five houses were flooded in Spring Gardens while the White River and the Dobson Scheme suffered flooding and landslides. Little Spanish River also overflowed, blocking the roadway and flooding homes on the Portland/St Mary border.

The scenario in neighbouring St Mary was similar with flooding and landslides in several areas, including Annotto Bay, Dressikie, Martin, Bottom Albany, Richmond and Highgate.

Mayor of Port Maria Richard Creary said there was a report that a house in Labrynth was covered by flood water. He said the St Mary Parish Council had sent officers out to check on drains that may have been blocked and contributed to flooding in some areas.

“The reports we are getting suggest it’s (damage) not on a wide scale but if the rains continue we never know what may happen,” Creary said.

In a statement yesterday, People’s National Party (PNP) caretaker for South East St Mary, Harry Douglas, called on the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) to “immediately release emergency supplies, including tarpaulins, raincoats and food stuff.