HANOVER, Jamaica — Member Parliament (MP) for Hanover Western, Ian Hayles, is calling for the intervention of the Government and the National Works Agency (NWA) following yesterday’s massive flooding in various sections of the western parish.

“Enough is enough. We can’t continue like this anymore. Yesterday (Thursday evening) for hours upon hours, people could not go home until one, two o’clock last night (Friday morning), and some people could not go home at all. So, from the level of what was told and what we have seen from yesterday, we are calling in the government and the NWA, come let’s deal with the problems that the people of Hanover and Lucea faced with,” Hayles appealed.

Flooding resulting from heavy rainfall which pelted a section of the parish left a trail of destruction, with motorist and pedestrians stranded for hours. Residents claim that this was one of the worst flooding in the parish’s history.

The flooding, which commenced after six o’clock Thursday evening, was as a result of the Riley River (Lucea West River) overflowing its banks as heavy rainfall pelted a section of the parish from shortly before two in the afternoon.

“Look, anytime you have citizens have to come out of his or her vehicle and let the water take that vehicle away to save his or her life, we have a problem,” noted Hayles.

Hayles said the town has infrastructure problems which must be addressed.

“It is not that the water can’t go out to sea. But, we have some problems as I said before. The town is below sea level. So, the entire town has been flooded, and it happens year after year. Every rainy season I find myself back here appealing to government to let us come and let’s deal with some of the concerns of the people of Hanover,” stated Hayles, adding “we need help.”

The MP identified three areas of priority to include, a bypass road for the capital town, a massive drain cleaning exercise and infrastructure engineering work. He said that the situation “cannot be allowed to continue.”

“Send out its NWA engineer to start looking at the problems that we are faced with here in Lucea. It is either you are going to lift the road, and if you lift the road throughout the town, You still end up back with the same problem. So number one is, you can lift the road, but we need a bypass road in the town of Lucea,” Hayles suggested.

Meanwhile, councillor for the Lucea division, Easton Edwards said that while a bypass road is needed, this would not occur over the short term. He too listed three things that must be done to address the flooding issue.

“While the bypass is good, that is in the long run. We, I am certain that if we are practical, the bypass won’t be here for now. Yes, it is a good idea, and we should work towards that, but in the short run, these are the three things that I think should be done,” said Edwards who pointed to the need for larger holes to be placed in the retaining sea wall in the town, dredging of the Riley River and having large pumps on standby to pump flood waters in the town to the sea.

“Guess what, the drains are clean, yet the volume of water that is coming is too much for how fast the water is moving into the sea,” added Edwards.

A few miles away in another section of the parish, board houses were also washed away in the Lances Bay community by the Lances Bay River which overflowed its banks.

“Mi a look through the window and me hear, creak (cracking sounds), and when my look and see mi neighbour house, the water just go under it and just lift it up and just carry it to the back like a boat on sea,” expressed a Lances Bay resident who did not want to be named.

“Her bed, everything, her fridge, TV, everything mud-up, mash-up, destroy in there. It terrible,” the resident added.