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Road and Crop Damage in Portland

October 1, 2010

The Full Story

The heavy rains since the start of the week have caused major damage to roads and crops in the Buff Bay Valley area of Portland.
Information Minister and Member of Parliament for West Portland, Hon. Daryl Vaz, made the revelation to JIS News after an aerial tour of the parish today (September 30) to assess the extent of the damage.
He said the road network in the Buff Bay Valley area has been of serious concern to the Government for a number of years.
“We were working on four breakaways that have been there from 2006. I have now identified one more major breakaway and one more major landslide. So, that is going to be a challenge to the area, because already, it was difficult to move around in the Buff Bay Valley,” he informed.
Mr. Vaz also reported damage to agricultural produce, particularly bananas, which were flattened by the wind accompanying the rain.
In addition, he said most of the parish has had no electricity for the last two days and this has affected the supply of water to the parish. However, he said the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) was working to restore power.
“My understanding from the JPS is that they were hoping to get most of Portland back up today, but there were challenges in terms of the Rio Grande Valley and the Buff Bay Valley because of the landslides and the limited access,” he said.
Mr. Vaz said he was unable to make assessments on the ground as the helicopter in which he was travelling was unable to land because of the damage to the landscape in the parish. However, he said aerial photographs have been taken and more detailed assessment will be done later.

Last Updated: August 13, 2013

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