Negril residents lash Met Service for lack of information
Published:Sunday | October 3, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU: Negril residents are adamant they experienced a Category-One hurricane last Tuesday night and not a tropical storm - criticising the island's Meteorological Service for what they say is its lack of up-to-date information.
Between last Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, Negril was hit by ferocious winds, brutal waves and storm surges eroding sections of the popular seven-mile beach and destroying rooms at a number of small hotels on the West End.
The West End's Xtabi, Tensing Pen, Catch-a-Falling-Star, The Caves, Rockhouse, Rick's Café, and the beachside's Sandals Negril, Negril Tree House, Foote Prints, Merril's were worst affected by the storm.
"The Met Service sent out a flash flood-warning on Tropical Storm Nicole, but we had a Category-One hurricane, with storm surges up to 30ft high, accompanied by waves crashing over them," said hotelier and area chair of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association Negril Chapter, Evelyn Smith.
Smith said the severity of the storm in terms of wind speed and storm surge took many of the businesses in the resort town by surprise. "There is a need for a more efficient locally based online Met Service that has up-to-the-minute information on systems affecting the country," she argued.
According to her, the resort town is forced to rely on Wunderground.com, a weather website, "which is great, but doesn't always have the precise data needed to adequately inform persons".
Member of parliament, for Western Westmoreland, Dr Wykeham McNeill, who has been in the area since Friday, said the Met Service and the Office of Disaster Preparedness Emergency Management must find a way to do their own extrapolations and put out data that is of an international standard. "Give us information specific to sections of the country."
damage
He said the storm took Negril by surprise and the damage is far beyond proportion.
The Met Service when contacted said it would not comment on the suggestion that its equipment and method had become obsolete.
Efforts to get a clearer picture from head of the weather branch, Evan Thompson, proved futile, as he told The Sunday Gleaner he was in a workshop, referring the newspaper to the head of the Forecast Centre, Lawrence Brown. Brown's number rang without an answer.
Owners of properties have moved swiftly to restore their facilities and most of those that were damaged will reopen on Wednesday.