St Catherine and Clarendon hit hard
Published:Monday | October 4, 2010 | 12:00 AM
St Catherine and Clarendon schools suffered the most significant damage during rains associated with Tropical Storm Nicole last week, according to an assessment by the Ministry of Education.
Schools in the coastal parishes of Portland, St Mary, St Thomas and Kingston followed with extensive damage of their own, while St Ann was the least affected parish.
The findings are based on an inspection of school buildings islandwide, which found flooded classrooms, leaking roofs, displaced windows, and waterlogged equipment and furniture.
Chief Education Officer Grace McLean said the ministry was calculating the repair cost, but made it clear that the schools would remain open.
"I am sure there are some schools that are going to be severely affected. There is going to be the need for quite a bit of cleaning up, but we are expecting that everybody will pull together and we will try and have this done as quickly as possibly so that everything can return to normalcy," McLean said.
Families relocated
Another major challenge for students in St Catherine and Clarendon, she said, was the severe damage to some of the roadways in those parishes.
"That is definitely going to affect our students being able to travel to the schools," the chief education officer pointed out.
Yesterday, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) managed to relocate several families that were being accommodated at schools in St Andrew, St Catherine and Westmoreland.
However, up to late afternoon, 22 people were still being housed at the Sandy Park Basic School, but ODPEM said every effort was being made to identify alternative accommodation.
Meanwhile, the health ministry announced yesterday that except for Spanish Town Hospital, the University Hospital of the West Indies and all public hospitals are again offering full services.
Spanish Town Hospital is offering emergency services only.
The ministry said it would continue to monitor and advise the public as soon as the situation changes.