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Sajoune Rose, Gleaner Writer

Despite Jamaica being affected by at least four hurricanes in the last three years, many persons are still did not heeding evacuation warnings issued this time around.

Photo by Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer: Portmore HEART/NTA shelter in St. Catherine. This man was one of three men there at the shelter when The Gleaner arrived. He complained of being hungry.

Out of a approximately 3,000 residents in Port Royal, only 10 persons heeded the evacuation warnings and boarded one of the eleven buses sent by the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) between Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon. The evacuees were mainly elderly persons.

“You ever hear nutten happen to Port Royal?” asked one resident. “Them always sensationalise Port Royal and after the hurricane nutten no happen.”

He recalled the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan where some persons evacuated and went to shelters but returned to find their homes safe and secure, while they endured harsh conditions at the shelter. They said the people were treated “badly.” “It still fresh in their memories that’s why a lot of persons not leaving,” said Rohan.

“Right now, Port Royal is on solid ground so we not going anywhere,” said Weston, one resident who remained in the flood prone community.
 
Resident of Portmore in St. Catherine, which has several vulnerable communities, resisted desperate pleas to evacuate and move to the designated shelters.

While massive preparations took place all over the island in many areas designated as centres in preparation for the effects of Hurricane Dean three willing residents of Portmore who heeded the warnings to evacuate their communities turned up at one centre to be greeted with a large empty room.

“I opened this centre from 7:30 this morning and now 1 p.m. and up until nothing is here,” said shelter manager Trevor Gayle.

He lamented the situation saying that if only three persons were there and nothing was in place for them, then what would happen when more persons came in.

However Mayor of Portmore, George Lee said that more supplied should have arrived by midday but said that authorities were guaging their response based on how many people were arriving at the shelter.

Mr. Gayle however did not agree: “If you don’t protect the little one, how are you going to deal with the masses?” he questioned.

On a visit to the Rae Town fishing beach, many persons, most fishermen and vendors were seen in their one-room dwellings. They say that they cannot abandon their belongings, which cost thousands of dollars.

George Henry, a fish vendor who has occupied one of the dwellings on the beach for the last 20 years said that he couldn’t abandon his place because someone has to stay and safeguard the items other fisherfolks who had left.

“We can’t abandon everything altogether. Someone has to give some form of oversight,” he said. However, he said that his home, at 14 Fisheries Road in Kingston, is not really safe either. He said that it experienced Hurricane Gilbert and recently Ivan but now he doesn’t feel that he is safe in that structure.

“That house pass through two hurricanes with hol heap a leakings and neither the state nor fishery do nutten fi help me still,” he said.

Mr. Lee, however, repeated the plea for a law to be enacted to ensure mandatory evacuation out of flood-prone areas like Portmore.

After the passage of Hurricane Ivan in September 2004,  the Government indicated its intention to implement a mandatory evacuation order for certain communities with the approach of a storm or hurricane.