KINGSTON, Jamaica— The Government has begun assessing the damage caused by Tropical Storm Rafael, which impacted Jamaica between November 4 and 5.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, said preliminary figures indicate that the damage could range between $500 million and $1 billion.

“Our figures are preliminary; by the end of the day, we will have more refined figures to share with the public,” Holness said.

He was addressing Wednesday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House.

The prime minister noted that Jamaica has a multi-layered disaster risk response mechanism, which has placed the country in a position to fund the repairs.

“We have made budgetary allocations to create buffers, which we have put into a contingency fund. That fund is approximately $5 billion, and we use that to respond to disasters as they occur. So, it is likely that we will be able to fund the damage from this most recent unexpected shock from what we have budgeted.”

“Jamaica is at this stage where, instead of borrowing to finance, what we do is we now set aside from the budget to be able to finance these things. It’s a big change in how Jamaica operates,” he noted.

Meanwhile, Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation with responsibility for Works, Robert Morgan, in giving a report on the storm’s impact, noted that there were 15 blocked roads, 10 flooded roads, minor damage to two roads, seven roads with single lane access and two roads that were impassable.

“We did have damage. But it wasn’t as significant as what we have seen [with] the likes of Hurricane Beryl, so we must be thankful. We didn’t lose any roads really, but we had some significant landslides, particularly in West Rural St Andrew,” Morgan said.

He shared that the National Works Agency (NWA) has commenced providing access to blocked roads by way of single lane traffic, adding that the next step will be to fully clear the blockages.

-JIS