HURRICANE Beryl’s relentless winds and heavy rainfall posed a significant challenge to the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB), with roads blocked by fallen trees and excessive flooding hindering the emergency service’s ability to respond to 25 to 30 per cent of distress calls, said Commissioner Stewart Beckford.

Power outages and issues with telecommunication networks also proved to be challenges in terms of the emergency responders’ ability to readily access members in the field and communicate effectively.

“We had walk-in patients — meaning people who suffered injuries as a result of the storm — walk into the station, and we would treat them there because, in some instances, it was not practical to get them to a medical facility because of blocked roads or it was in the height of the hurricane, which made it almost impossible,” said Beckford.

He said reports across the island during the hurricane ranged from medical emergencies such as heart attacks to rescue from collapsed structures, fires and more, 70 to 75 per cent of which they were able to respond.

“Regrettably, we were not able to respond to all of them because of the factors in terms of lack of access — whether it’s due to fallen trees, utility poles, or flooding,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“Some of the [calls], we made [response] attempts [but] the blockage was so severe that even though we would’ve had our lead team of firefighters with the necessary cutting equipment to clear the way for us… the time that it sometimes took to clear these roads, when we got to the locations the help would no longer be needed, so it was a challenge,” Beckford explained.

He added that in some instances a fire unit would be out responding to a call and then another report would come in which they were not able to respond to because there were no units available or the roads were impassable.

Power outages and downed telecommunication towers, particularly in western Jamaica, also posed an issue for emergency response workers during and after the passage of the hurricane, said Commissioner Beckford.

He said that while he is in touch with all 13 division heads, “We lost telephone communication with the St Elizabeth Division, Westmoreland Division, and St James Division most of [Thursday] into [Friday] morning, but those lines are coming back on as we speak.

“Friday morning, we were able to re-establish communication through the Westmoreland Division, the Savanna-la-Mar station, Negril, and St James. We haven’t fully restored communication with St Elizabeth [but] we have partial communication with them now, and stations are able to communicate with each other,” said Beckford.

“What we discovered [was] that one network may be up in one particular space and the other one is down, and you go to another space and the other network is up, and the one that was up in point A is not working at that location. That is what we have been seeing and so we have been using both networks to communicate. It’s not the most efficient but it can get the job done. We are in a disaster so we have to get creative in terms of our communication,” he explained.

The commissioner admitted that there were some teething pains with the Disaster Emergency Communication System developed by the Government in partnership with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), but they were able to work through the challenges and are looking to improve it moving forward.

“We had our VHF radio communication system, which stood up, and we were able to communicate using that medium in some instances but in terms of telephone communication, where it’s by cellphone, that was a significant challenge for us,” he said.

“The [Disaster Emergency Communication] System was pressed into action because of the imminent passage of the hurricane and so there is further work to be done, as the minister would have indicated, but it held up. And we are looking forward to the system being formally commissioned into service and formally handed over so that we can operate on it,” he said.