As the island braces for the impact of Hurricane Beryl, National Works Agency (NWA) CEO Everton Hunter says the entity will be activating its emergency response centre.

“We will this afternoon be activating our emergency operation centre, which is a satellite of the national emergency operation centre and in that centre, we will receive reports of flooding and roadblocks, and our teams will be mobilised to respond. We will also be in a position to coordinate that information and prepare for Cabinet the updated reports on a daily basis,” Hunter stated.

Hunter, who was speaking at a Government press briefing on Monday (July 1), disclosed that parish teams have also been activated and will be in contact with local municipalities and the local Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) in each parish.

“In addition to the activation of our parish teams, our construction sites have also been phased to reduce the impact of hurricanes and, in particular, the damage caused by water. The run-off on the construction sites is usually exacerbated by open areas on a construction site, so we have taken steps to mitigate against that,” Hunter noted while explaining that some of these vulnerable areas include sections of the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (SCHIP).

Meanwhile, the NWA CEO said the agency commenced its drain cleaning activities in May, valued at a sum of $1 million for each constituency, and is set to continue.

“In addition to the constituency drainage cleaning exercise, we have also added a couple of areas based on our analysis: Wickie Wackie in St Andrew, the Sandy Gully, two bridges on the Sandy Gully in the vicinity of Washington Boulevard, and Spanish Town Road, which are particularly vulnerable to the sediments that accumulate in the Gully, and so we started cleaning the Sandy Gully in those particular areas over the weekend,” Hunter stated.

He said work will continue in drain cleaning the Sandy Gully. Hunter further noted that special attention is being given to low-lying areas in Kingston and Portmore.