Member of Parliament for Southwest St Elizabeth, Floyd Green, says that Hurricane Beryl, a category four storm that swept across Jamaica on Wednesday, has left many residents in the parish completely devastated.

Heavy rains and strong winds caused significant damage, rendering many roads impassable due to fallen trees and leaving numerous homes without roofs.

“It’s a really tough situation,” Green posted to social media. “I have already been in touch with the National Works Agency in relation to clearing the roads to ensure that we can move around the community. Already JPS has been made aware of the light poles that are down and they are just waiting on the all-clear to be able to go out and start that work.”

In a late Wednesday social media post, Green described Hurricane Beryl as dealing “a most devastating blow” to St Elizabeth.

“Significant numbers of roofs lost, houses destroyed, trees uprooted, and almost all roads impassable,” Green tweeted. “Going to be an extremely long night.”

He further noted that major roads, such as those at Brompton, Lewis Town, Crawford, Luana to Brompton, Elim, Holland Bamboo, Nain, and Goshen were blocked due to fallen trees.

–        Claude Mills