PRIME Minister Andrew Holness has pledged to assist householders who are most in need with roof repairs.

In his Christmas message, Holness said that aside from road repairs, the most frequent request he gets as he travels around the country is for assistance with housing repairs, mainly roofing.

“The heavy rains have wreaked havoc to roofs across the country. While we will not be able to assist every private dwelling, we will be examining ways in which we can quickly assist those households most in need of roofing repairs.

“While we don’t have snow, given the climate change factors we are certainly going to have more intense weather events. Your Government will design and develop a programme to help you adapt and mitigate the impacts of the changing climate,” he added.

Shortly after the passage of the devastating Hurricane Beryl on July 3 this year, Holness had announced that the Government would be launching a programme focusing on resilient roofing.

In a statement to the House of Representatives on Tuesday, July 16, Holness said that assessments following the impact of Hurricane Beryl on Jamaica found that appropriate building codes were not adhered to.

“Driving down a stretch of road, you can see one house zinc roof stood up and another one, obviously with zinc roof, right beside it — that roof is gone, and on further examination, you would see that appropriate building codes were not followed,” he said then.

Holness said that through the initiative, hurricane straps would also be distributed in specific communities.

The Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, through the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management, has since launched that undertaking.