Both the minister responsible for disaster response, Hon. Rawdon Turner, as well as the agency responsible, the National Office of Disaster Services (NODS) are ‘quite pleased’ with the work of the agency prior to, during and immediately after the passage of Tropical Storm Jerry last Thursday and Friday.
“Our teams were ready for any eventuality that the storm could possibly bring and as the minister responsible, I was kept abreast of all developments taking place, prior to, during and after the passage of TS Jerry. Our teams were in a state of readiness prior to the storm and we opened shelters in every district so that anyone who wished could go there and feel safe,” Minister Turner stated.
He said he is also happy that that there were no casualties or serious injuries coming out of the storm.
His comments were echoed by the Deputy Coordinator of NODS, Craig Cole, who reported that two vehicles – a bus and another vehicle- were struck in the waters on the airport road on Friday morning and had to be rescued. Those were the only two rescued operations that happened following the storm. He added that his team had to advise motorists not to travel to Pigotts using the main road because it posed a serious threat to life and property.
“We first had to use vehicles to block the road and later called on the police to place cones on both sides of the bridge leading into and out of Pigotts because of the sheer volume of the water. This posed a threat to human life and we had to take decisive action to prevent motorists from attempting to travel along this dangerous roadway,” Cole reported.
He explained that there are several ponds that serve as catchments for the water that have been backfilled over time resulting in larger volumes of water converging on a narrow bridge. The result was rising levels of water that made the bridge impassable.
Prior to the storm, NODS carried out the clearing of many water ways as well as carry out the trimming of some trees. However, despite their attempts to avoid flooding in the Hodges Bay area. Cole further explained that the area where the water was destined to pass was too narrow for the amount of water that came pouring down and this problem was further exacerbated when a blue plastic barrel blocked the drainage area.
With respect to other areas of the island, Cole revealed that six teams were dispatched to several areas of Antigua on Friday to do on-the-spot assessments and to report back to headquarters. One team went to the southern area; one to the North to include Marble Hill and Yorks; one went to Freetown, Mill Reef and Nonsuch Bay; one went to English Harbour and the general St. Paul community; another took a more central path, traversing Buckley and Swetes and surrounding communities and another went to the Five Islands area.
Cole further revealed that the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) was activated Thursday evening following consultation with Prime Minister Gaston Browne.
According to the deputy NODS coordinator, uppermost in the minds of NEOC and NODS was to take whatever action possible to ensure so that economic activities could resume as soon as possible after the storm.
Tropical Storm Jerry dumped more than nine inches of rain especially in the northern section of Antigua and over four inches in other parts of the island. In Barbuda, the recorded amount was not immediately available.
