Headlines labelled her a killer; people refer to her in a tone riddled with disdain and disgust for she was definitively the reason why Jamaica stood still for almost an entire week.

Tropical Storm Nicole ravaged our country last week, leaving many people despondent and dispossessed. Nicole ultimately circled the flaws of our development scheme and highlighted the serious need for reform. Enquiring minds have been trying to grapple with the difficult question of, if this was merely a tropical storm and such damage was caused, what would have happened if a high category hurricane were to have come in Nicole’s place.

The unforgiving truth of the geographical landscape is that prolonged and torrential rainfall has the horrific effect of removing top soil and, by extension, leads to landslide and damage to infrastructure. In understanding this fact, one can see where failure to top up top soil can offset landslides and other tumultuous damage with the simplest showers.

TEENage is here to draw the definitive line between the lack of Government intervention and social practices that worsen the already fragile situation.

Government intervention is a three-fold scenario which ultimately starts with ensuring that public infrastructure such as roads are properly built, that building permits are regulated and that ministries are consolidated to foster communication and accurate reallocation of resources.

Advocating the consolidation of ministries stems from the fact that through the creation of a channel for communication and reallocation of resources, one would be in a better position to direct this revenue to the proper construction of road infrastructure for example.

Building permits are the legal checks for permission to construct on a particular piece of land. The Government has to prevent people from building on lands which legally are meant to be unclaimed and left for the purposes of facilitating gully maintenance along with other important public procedures. Until this is addressed, people will continue to build on unfit lands and further endanger themselves.

In the name of being objective, TEENage will now show how in some ways we contribute to our detriment. The social practices that leave us in the red for blaming the Government include refusing to leave low-lying areas when advised to so in the event of an emergency and dancing with death when “chancing it” by driving through high waters and impassable routes.

We fail to see the danger of building in areas close to gullies and valleys, then not taking the necessary precautions to ensure proper drainage.

The insufficient number of shelters and other living arrangements is something we have taken into consideration and feel that this is an avenue for serious government intervention. Furthermore, this refusal to move has been supported by the valid and simple question of where are we to move to? Other practices include gross pollution, especially on roads, which has the debilitating effect of blocking drainage, thus causing water to gather on the road.

A partnership between the Government and the citizens of this country is the only viable solution.

TEENage strongly advises that we look within ourselves and ensure that before we cast the blame on the Government, we are not guilty of doing anything that might make their job more difficult. The question that is left hanging in the balance is, how many persons will have to lose their lives before something long-term is done to prevent this tragedy from happening again?