KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) has pledged to assist residents of Trafalgar Park, St Andrew, who were severely affected by flooding in September due to heavy rainfall.

During a recent visit to the area, Terry Forrester, the parish disaster coordinator at KSAMC, assured residents that the corporation, in collaboration with its partner agencies, would provide essential comfort items to those impacted.

“The KSAMC will be working with our partner agencies through the welfare health committee of the parish disaster committee and we will be working with our partner agencies to see how best we can provide comfort items and other items to the individuals that have been affected over the period,” Forrester said.

Trafalgar Park resident Nadine Thompson, who has faced the challenges of flooding twice, expressed gratitude for the support.

“They’re going to assist me with like beds and stuff like that. They’re going to talk to Ministry of Labour and [see] what any other resource they can do. The mayor was just here. He was very helpful by telling me what he’s going to try and do to help. And he is liaising with other agencies to see what they can do to help me out,” Thompson said.

However, Thompson also voiced concerns about the possibility of further flooding, particularly after noticing that the property owner behind her house had completely covered the gully.

“He covered it completely. So I’m scared because if there’s anything…to block the gully right now, you can’t get in there to clear it because he covered it completely. As you can see right now, it’s cloudy. The rain is falling somewhere. It’s only drizzling right here now. So I’m scared because there’s no fence back there. It is just open because the first flooding brought the wall down and it is not back up as yet,” she said.

Xavier Chevannes, city engineer at the KSAMC, confirmed that the recent flooding was caused by a blocked drain running through private properties along Braemar Avenue.

“So there was a blockage between two properties, we stepped in, we had the blockage removed so the water could run off freely. After the first flooding, the investigation was still preliminary and then we had the subsequent rains. So after the second flooding, all the debris were removed and the blockage were removed, which included old washing machine, tree trunk and so forth. We have removed all that debris to ensure that the drain is running freely to prevent a further reoccurrence,” Chevannes said.

Chevannes added, “This drain that runs through the private properties, based on our investigation so far, is not 100 per cent complete, which suggests that the property owners would be responsible to maintain those drains.”

He said the KSAMC plans to reach out to the property owner to offer advice on how to properly manage the drain and ensure future flooding risks are minimised.

“What we have seen is something that is beyond proper engineering practices, malpractices, whereas there’s no access point in the drain for maintenance purposes. So if for any reason the drain will be blocked in the future, there’s no way that any personnel can go in to maintain or remove that blockage because there’s no access point in this particular property on Braemar Avenue. So we’ll be reaching out to the property owner to give them the proper advice because they would have gone and done it without our input,” he said.