{"id":878,"date":"2017-11-24T18:10:50","date_gmt":"2017-11-24T18:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=878"},"modified":"2017-11-24T18:10:50","modified_gmt":"2017-11-24T18:10:50","slug":"mobay-hit-by-worst-flooding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=878","title":{"rendered":"MoBay hit by worst flooding"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li><em>PM to ask Cabinet for emergency funding<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Clinton Pickering<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\n<em> Freelance Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Confronted by the worst flooding disaster ever witnessed in Montego Bay, Prime Minister Andrew Holness is to ask Cabinet to approve emergency funding to restore serious losses to both the public and private sectors.<\/p>\n<p>He said it was both an intense and unusual weather event, \u201cbut it is becoming the new norm. We have seen intense rainfall like this in April, in May, in June and we are now seeing it in October and November.\u201d And, he pointed out, the forecast is for more rainfall going into the weekend when it probably will intensify.<\/p>\n<p>Having toured Montego Bay on Wednesday with Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie, Minister of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Dr. Horace Chang; Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett; Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte and a host of central and local government officials, Prime Minister Holness said: \u201cThe government will support, as much as we can, the recovery effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said he would be speaking with the Minister of Social Security \u201cto ensure that persons who have been affected, who have lost property, especially owners, that there is some assistance provided. \u201cI can\u2019t say it will be a lot but we will assist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He commended the St James Municipal Corporation (StJMC) \u201cfor the incredible response that I have observed.\u201d The Prime Minister also paid tribute to the \u201cincredible resilience of spirit\u201d displayed by the people of Montego Bay. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen one person with defeatist attitude,\u201d he told a Press Conference in the Corporation\u2019s Council Chamber.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Holness was assured that the city would be back to normal within another two days \u201cproviding there are no more phenomenal weather events to affect the people of Montego Bay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Minister McKenzie lamented that this week has not been good for Local Government with the parishes of St James, Portland and St Catherine experiencing severe flooding. \u201cComing here to St James and Montego Bay this morning, I was totally blown away.\u201d But he said it was the responsibility of his ministry to work closely with StJMC to ensure that we return normality to the areas that have been affected.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>EMERGENCY FUND<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As an emergency measure, he said the ministry was allocating $10 million from an Equalization Fund to complement $10 million which he had already authorized Chairman of the StJMC and Mayor of Montego Bay, Homer Davis to draw down from an Emergency Fund.<\/p>\n<p>Further, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), the Ministry of Labour and Social Security along with the St James Disaster Parish Coordinator \u201cwill move immediately to start to do the assessment of individuals who have sustained damage over the last 24 hours. The Jamaica Fire Brigade will be at the disposal of St James Municipal Corporation to assist in the washing down and doing what is necessary in regards to getting back sections of Montego Bay in operation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Minister McKenzie said he was happy that there was no report of loss of life \u201cbut there has been extensive damage that has been done to private and public property.\u201d He said he would be back in Montego Bay next Tuesday for two days making an in-depth assessment of \u201cand to see how best we can respond to this major crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Mayor Davis said the corporation had activated its emergency system \u201cand if it takes us 24, 36, 48 hours, my effort is to return Montego Bay to normal by Sunday of this week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PM to ask Cabinet for emergency funding Clinton Pickering Freelance Writer Confronted by the worst flooding disaster ever witnessed in Montego Bay, Prime Minister Andrew Holness is to ask Cabinet to approve emergency funding to restore serious losses to both the public and private sectors. He said it was both an intense and unusual weather [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[243,242,30],"class_list":["post-878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-cabinet","tag-mobay-flooding","tag-western-jamaica"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":880,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions\/880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}