Stranded again

Arthur Hall, Senior Gleaner Writer

HEAVY DUTY equipment were rushed to Harbour View St Andrew yesterday as the main ford which linked the eastern end of the island to Kingston was again washed away.

Weeks after work started on a permanent bridge across the Hope River and the Bailey bridge was dismantled, persons again found themselves stuck on the two sides of the river.

With the ford washed away, motorists had to park their vehicles on both sides of the river as they prayed for the National Works Agency to arrange a way for them to get across the river which was in spate.

"This is the second time in recent years that I have been stuck and cannot go home," said one woman who was on the Harbour View side of the ford.

"Which expert would suggest that they take down the Bailey bridge in the middle of the hurricane season. That expert should pay for all the problems we now face," said another woman as she called friends in the Corporate Area looking for somewhere to stay last night.

Other persons, stuck on the other side of the ford, had to miss work and they were also not pleased.

"This is foolishness. Somebody must get fired," said an employee of a prominent financial institution in Kingston during a telephone call to The Gleaner.

Workmen were busy trying to create a new channel for the water to flow yesterday afternoon after news came that a man who attempted to cross the flooded ford had been washed away.

Up to press time, there was no official word from the authorities but residents claimed to have seen the body floating towards the sea.

Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry, who visited the ford, appealed to affected persons for patience and understanding.

According to Henry, the ford will be restored shortly after the cessation of the ongoing rainfall.

The Hope River Bridge, popularly called the Harbour View Bridge, was split in two by Tropical Storm Gustav in 2008 leaving thousands of persons stranded.

That came 12 years after the bridge was undermined by the surging waters from the Hope River during flood rains that lashed the island in 1986.