St. James flood fixes for West Green, Catherine Hall to roll out under NARA

Nine months after Hurricane Melissa battered parts of St. James, the government says it has a plan to ease chronic flooding in West Green and Catherine Hall. Works Minister Robert Morgan announced that a flood-mitigation programme will be delivered under NARA and will go further than expanding drains alone. He spoke on Saturday at a rebuild and recovery expo in the parish.

In the storm’s immediate wake, residents in sections of Catherine Hall and West Green waded through more than 10 feet of water. Once the floodwaters fell, many houses sat nearly smothered in mud. A later survey, Morgan said, laid bare how severe the parish’s flooding risk remains.

“The results were a bit astounding. The drains in Catherine Hall and West Green were not built for storms. They were built for rain,” he said. Underground drains measured only six inches, he explained, and Melissa’s debris rendered them useless within half an hour. Communities also lacked barriers against seawater pushing inland.

Morgan stressed that larger drains alone would not solve the problem. Water could still arrive, and mud could still settle in people’s homes. Officials have completed a drainage study and intend to put it into effect under NARA as a lasting response to flooding threats in West Green and Catherine Hall.

He also dismissed claims that Jamaican contractors have been shut out of post-Melissa rebuilding. Pointing to the SPARK programme, he said that while China Harbor is the main contractor, more than 26 local contractors and suppliers are involved — a deliberate government policy. Local firms may lack the enterprise-scale financing needed for projects such as a perimeter road, he argued, but a society cannot be built by bringing in all expertise from abroad.