KINGSTON, Jamaica — The residents of Burger Gully in Kingston East were forced to evacuate their homes on Friday due to heavy rainfall, which triggered flooding of the nearby gully.

Noting that the overflow happens every time there is heavy rain, the residents are now calling on the National Works Agency (NWA) to treat the matter as an emergency.

“It was no surprise to see the level of flooding that has taken place within the community. I just want the government, the NWA, to know that this is now an emergency. This is an emergency situation happening in Burger Gully that needs to be addressed because residents have to be evacuating their premises. Some of the shops— the local shops— goods have been damaged and have to be thrown out because of the level of flooding that has happened from this particular section of the Burger community,” shared Orlando Hamilton, a resident of the community.

Pointing to the gully, Hamilton explained that the community has brought attention to the situation before, but it has since “worsened”.

“This needs immediate attention from the Government. I know they are saying that the NWA came and engineers came, several persons came and looked at it to do an estimate and to get the work done. We need attention now. We need this to happen now because several homes have been damaged. Residents have been displaced all over,” Hamilton continued.

He acknowledged that Member of Parliament for Kingston East and Port Royal, Phillip Paulwell, is “trying his best to get the funding that is necessary to fix this gully”.

“The entire flooring of the gully has been damaged. As a result of that, the water is now undermining the wall and causing it to burst and overflow,” Hamilton said.