Christopher Burgess | Kingston’s Friday flood fury – a rude wake-up call

On Friday, September 19, a thunderstorm settled over parts of the city and pounded Half-Way Tree, New Kingston, Barbican, and Cross Roads. The rain pelted hard between 4:30 and 6 p.m., and Kingston was flooded out – once again. Within minutes, roads were inundated, cars floated away, and commuters were stranded.

By Saturday, those affected were picking up the pieces, drying out and towing wrecking cars to mechanics, and wondering what just hit them. There was no warning of a storm of this intensity.

Meteorological data from New Kingston and Cherry Gardens show 90 to 140mm of rain fell in an hour and a half. This is the rainfall normally experienced for the entire month of September. Engineers classify this as a 50-to-100-year storm, the type of intense rainfall gullies are meant to withstand —rare and extreme. One downpour brought Kingston’s business districts, transport hubs, and main roads to neighbourhoods to a standstill.

Why did some of the city’s most “developed” areas fail so spectacularly? The answer lies less in climate change and more in Kingston’s chronic absence and neglect of drainage infrastructure.

The Friday event prompted members of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers (JIE) to share observations and recommendations. The timing was striking: the JIE’s Annual Engineers’ Week Conference was brought to a halt when the Summit Hotel’s conference room, parking lot, and vehicles were severely flooded. Some cars still remain out of service. This article reflects our collective views. A follow-up piece will examine how we build resilience.

BUILDING VULNERABILITIES (BUT NOT DRAINAGE?)

This disaster was foretold. The National Works Agency’s 2011 Comprehensive Drainage and Flood Control Master Plan documented Kingston’s vulnerabilities. It identified absent, aged, and undersized drains in Half-Way Tree and several areas across Kingston. Plans for improvement were drawn up —but barely implemented to date. Approximately two of the 44 plans have been implemented in 14 years.

And for Cross Roads, New Kingston, and Barbican? There is no drainage-improvement plans at all. Nonetheless, the study warned us that without investment in these areas that they would remain vulnerable. A decade later, the warning is being realised.

Meanwhile, Kingston experienced a building boom under the 2017 Kingston and St. Andrew Development Orders that permitted higher densities. But the supporting drainage infrastructure was never installed to support the high concentrations of apartments in these areas. This is despite government collecting fees for each development application. And, some apartments were built over drains, with restrictive openings, that would be poorly maintained and choke the safe passage of floodwater. It is as if we were not prepared.

Similarly, major roadworks would be built without drainage and flood control. Take for example Barbican Road and East Kings House Road, which was upgraded in 2018, costing over US$5 million but did not include adequate drainage for a well-known flood-prone area in the dip of the main road. Well, on that Friday, we reaped the rewards of incompetence. It flooded, leaving several motorists heading home to Jack Hills and Russel Heights stranded. It begs the question if there was sufficient independent oversight.

We seem to be building vulnerability into the city, not drains.

THE ECONOMIC TOLL

The most visible losses were the vehicles – cars submerged along main roads, buses stranded mid-route with passengers, and commuters wading through murky water. One home in Trafalgar Park was severely damaged.

Kingston’s roads, thankfully, emerged largely intact. It was people, property, and businesses that bore the brunt of the losses. Each flooded car and each car smashed against another car in a flooded parking lot is a family’s lost savings. These costs quietly add up to billions in damage.

THE CLIMATE CONNECTION

What Kingston faced that Friday, while intense, was at the lower end of what the American Meteorological Society defines as a cloudburst. In places like Pennsylvania, Delhi, or Copenhagen, rainfall is three to four times more intense. Imagine if New Kingston had endured that. Globally, such events are projected to increase by 20 to 50 per cent by 2050. India, China, Europe, and the US East Coast will certainly see more cloudbursts. We must brace for them as well. Without resilient infrastructure, the damage will multiply.

Climate projections for Jamaica point us in the same direction. More heat means more water in the atmosphere. Since 1960, Jamaica has warmed nearly 0.8-degree Celsius and will warm another 0.4 degrees Celsius within two decades. Every degree Celsius adds about seven perc ent more water, fuelling heavier storms. When Bustamante built Sandy Gully in 1963, temperatures were almost one degree cooler, and storms were less intense. The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report confirms what we already feel: heavy rainfall is intensifying.

Friday’s storm is a preview of our future — cloudbursts arriving more often and striking hard at densely populated and vulnerable urban areas where drainage is already inadequate.

FROM BUSTA TO BARBICAN

Kingston needs drainage and flood-control overhaul. Since the 1960s when major gullies were built by Bustamante’s government, not much has happened, except in the 2010s when the NWA undertook significant gully-upgrade programmes. I remember the then director beaming as he pointed to rehabilitated gullies, including Sandy Gully and Upper Waterloo Gully. The NWA fixed walls and inverts to increase carrying capacity. Since then, there has been no major investment in drainage.

Without adequate drainage, Kingston will continue to pay the price: flooded cars in Barbican and New Kingston, and stranded commuter in Half Way Tree. Added to lost business hours in Cross Roads and flooded warehouses off Marcus Garvey Drive. Each time, we count losses, develop more plans to sit on shelves, and stream videos of floods on social media, carrying on as if nothing happened. This is disrespect to the people and businesses of Jamaica.

What is needed is the implementation of the comprehensive city-wide master plan that prioritizes flood control and drainage investments, based on economic returns. Paving roads without drainage is only building in increased vulnerabilities. Plans already exist that should be implemented with independent oversight.

Finally, public agencies such as the KSAMC, the NWC, and the NWA must treat drainage and flood control as essential infrastructure. When budgets exclude adequate drainage from major road and sewer projects, such as Seymour Avenue and Wellington Drive, the hidden cost — flooded homes, stranded motorists, lost business hours — outweighs the savings.

Friday’s storm was a hard test that Kingston failed. It is a wake-up call to invest in climate resilience and implement the 2011 drainage plans that are gathering dust.

Christopher Burgess, PhD, is a registered civil engineer, land developer and managing director of CEAC Outsourcing, owners of SMARTHomes Jamaica. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.