NWA Standing by to Respond to Impact of Hurricane Beryl

Manager, Communication and Customer Services, National Works Agency (NWA), Stephen Shaw, says the agency and its partners remain on high alert and are standing by to safely respond to the effects of Hurricane Beryl.

“What we are getting so far are mainly reports of storm surges impacting roads that are on the coastline. We have had reports of a few fallen trees but its early days and so we continue to monitor,” he told JIS News.

“We have our stakeholders and partners on high alert and standby and we will respond to any eventuality as soon as practicable and where it is safe for us to do so,” Mr Shaw added.

The agency operationalised its Emergency Operations Centre today (July 3) at 7:00 a.m. as part of its response to the expected impact of the system on the island’s road network.

The centre is being manned on a 24-hour basis.

“We have telephone numbers that we have shared with the public, and we hope that persons will continue to share whatever information they have so that this can be part of our response mechanism,” Mr. Shaw told JIS News.

Persons are being advised to call the Centre where issues arise regarding the accessibility of the road network as a result of the hurricane.

The contact numbers for the Centre are: 876-886-7182; 876-886-7364; 876-968-0621; 876-926-5831; 658-213-2557; 658-213-2558; 658-213-2559; and 658-213-2560.

Mr. Shaw is urging Jamaicans to keep safe.

“We are seeing the effects already; we are seeing where roads are being impacted and it’s pretty early and so we expect it to get even more challenging in the next few hours,” he said.

Some of the roads being impacted so far are Roselle, St. Thomas; Riversdale Road in St. Catherine; Windsor Castle Road and Long Bay area in Portland.

A Hurricane Warning remains in effect for Jamaica as Hurricane Beryl continues to make its way towards the island.

Hurricane conditions are very likely including extremely dangerous winds, storm surges, widespread rainfall and thundershowers.