Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness says a preliminary assessment of the damage to the roads following the passage of Tropical Storm Raphael could be between $500 million and $1 billion.

“We are not yet in a position to give definitive figures as to the damage assessment and what it will cost. Our figures are preliminary, but we expect them to be in the wide region of between half a billion to a billion dollars”.

The Prime Minister was addressing the Post Cabinet Press Briefing held yesterday (Wednesday, November 6, 2024) at Jamaica House.

Prime Minister Holness noted that Jamaica has a multi-layered disaster risk response mechanism, which has placed the country in a position to fund the repairs.

“We have made budgetary allocations to create buffers, which we have put into a contingency fund. That fund is approximately $5 billion, and we use that to respond to disasters as they occur, so, it is likely that we will be able to fund the damage from this most recent unexpected shock from what we have budgeted”, he noted.

The briefing was also addressed by Minister without Portfolio with responsibility for Works, Hon Robert Morgan, who noted that there was significant flooding in several parts of the island.

They include St. Ann, along the White River corridor; Broadgate, Toms River and Junction in St Mary and St. Andrew which he noted experienced considerable challenges.

“We had Mt. Airy, Golden Spring, Chesterfield Drive (which) also had some serious challenges including Stony Hill (and) Nolan Hill. We also had issues in St. Andrew

where the Troja Fording saw some significant inundation, as well as Worthy Park, St Johns, and Bartons in Old Harbour. Big Pond also saw significant flooding where persons were not able to exit the community”, he explained.

The Minister added that there were also issues in Ewarton, and the Bog Walk Gorge, which floods when there are significant rain events, Spanish Town and Sligoville, as well as sections of St. Thomas.

He further noted that 15 roads were totally blocked; 10 were flooded; 2 roads experienced minor road damage and 7 had only single-lane access. Two roads, he added, were totally impassable.

Minister Morgan said the National Works Agency’s (NWA) first objective is to create access when roads are blocked which would give residents and emergency services access to the communities and facilitate the re-opening of schools. The second phase he said, would be the total clearing of roads that have been blocked by landslides.

He noted that the NWA is currently in the field assessing the damage.

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