ST ELIZABETH, Jamaica — Ten of the 87 officially designated emergency shelters in St Elizabeth remain open nearly three months after the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

Acting Parish Disaster Coordinator at the St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation, Rasha Lloyd, provided details at the Disaster Preparedness, Hazard Mitigation & Safety Committee meeting at the corporation on January 12, in Santa Cruz.

She stated that the 10 shelters are currently accommodating approximately 72 people.

“Also, of the 10 shelters, two of them are schools. The two schools that are still open [as shelters] are Maggotty High School and Ginger Hill Primary School,” Lloyd outlined.

However, she noted that their use as shelters has not disrupted the reopening of schools for the new academic term. In fact, Lloyd pointed out that Maggotty High School, in particular, has been functioning as both a shelter and an active school since November last year, having reopened for classes.

As for Ginger Hill Primary School, the institution remains closed to students due to significant damage caused by the storm.

Lloyd said that the school is, however, projected to reopen during the last week of the month.

“We’re trying to, based on instructions from the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development, find out if they (persons in shelters) have any relatives they can stay with or if they know any place they can rent and the Government will assist with the paying of the rent,” Lloyd explained.

“Also, maybe to get some building materials as soon as possible for them to do some rebuilding, because most of these persons in the shelters they had board dwellings and those structures were destroyed due to the hurricane,” she continued.

In the meantime, Lloyd noted that the reinspection of emergency shelters, which began in December, has been temporarily paused for the month of January.

She said that January is dedicated to Earthquake Awareness Month, with schedules currently being coordinated with the Jamaica Fire Brigade (JFB) to spread awareness in schools. The shelter reinspection is to resume in February.

— JIS