Tropical Storm Rafael batters Cuba

After sustaining millions in damage from superstorm Beryl in July, authorities in Jamaica have once again begun assessments to determine how badly the island was hit by Tropical Storm Rafael as it made its way through the northern Caribbean at mid-week.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness made a special appearance at Wednesday’s post cabinet briefing to indicate that damage could run into the millions as he announced an island-wide assessment of damage caused by this late season storm. The annual hurricane season is due to conclude at the end of November, having started in June but global forecasters are still monitoring areas.

“Our figures are preliminary. By the end of the day, we will have more refined figures to share with the public,” Holness stated, noting that “we have made budgetary allocations to create buffers, which we have put into a contingency fund. 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.”

Officials say that rural St. Mary’s parish is one of the hardest hit areas with roads washed landslides and flooding in St. Catherine, flooding and downed trees in Manchester and flooding along a few main roads in Kingston, the capital. In all, said Job Creation Minister Robert Morgan, engineers and clean-up crews are attending to at least 15 blocked roads, nearly a dozen flooded ones and others which have been rendered as impassable.

“We did have damage but it wasn’t as significant as what we have seen with the likes of Hurricane Beryl, so we must be thankful. We didn’t lose any roads really, but we had some significant landslides, particularly in West Rural St Andrew,” Morgan said.

Rafael came ashore on an island that has been sustaining weeks of rainfall in some parts of the country, triggering landslides. Power has also been disrupted in some areas but not on the scale as when Beryl hit in the first week of July. Governments from neighboring Caribbean nations had sent utility crews to Jamaica to help locals restore power.

Meanwhile, neighboring Cuba’s electricity grid completely shut down once again this week as Rafael made landfall, causing misery to millions of customers who have been enduring long periods of darkness owing to outages. Officials there say the ageing grid could be on its last legs as authorities struggle for parts to replace worn out components.