Gov’t Working to Access Marooned Communities

The Government is working to access communities that are still marooned by the destruction caused by Hurricane Melissa, says Education, Skills, Youth and Information Minister, Senator Dr. the Hon. Dana Morris Dixon.

The hurricane made landfall a week ago as a category-five storm, causing extensive damage from catastrophic winds, severe flooding, and storm surges.

Several communities in the hardest-hit parishes, particularly St. Elizabeth and Westmoreland, have been inaccessible since the storm.

“We are doing everything to get into those marooned communities,” Dr. Morris Dixon said in a recent interview with JIS News at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston where she welcomed volunteers from the United States Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART).

“Even here at the airport, we are here to receive specialists who know how to do this. They have been in areas that have suffered disasters and they are coming here to help us to work with our JDF (Jamaica Defence Force), to work with the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), in order to make sure we get to you quickly,” she pointed out.

The Minister said that helicopters have been dropping food into the communities.

“We don’t want anyone to not be able to access food, so there are many things that we are prioritising as government, and we are doing our best,” she said, declaring that “the efforts won’t stop until we get to everyone”.

For his part, Minister of Energy, Transport and Telecommunications, Hon. Daryl Vaz, said measures have been put in place to streamline and simplify the process of relief supplies arriving at the airports.

“Jamaica has shown that it is ready for recovery, and the first point of contact in Jamaica is through these relief flights. We have to make sure that we deliver a service that will make [the donors] want to come back with more donations,” he told JIS News.