Marcus Garvey Drive flooding frustrates residents - Murky water damages student’s back-to-school supplies

It is not uncommon to see vehicles struggling to navigate the flooded Marcus Garvey Drive in St Andrew whenever there is torrential rain, but rarely is the spotlight placed on persons who live close to the edge of the highway.

The mere thought of heavy rains infuriates Tanesha Rodriques, one of the residents of Greenwich Town who, time and time again, have been left to put their furniture out to dry and hope that important documents and appliances are not destroyed by murky water that escapes roadway into their homes.

"Me frustrated bad," Rodriques told THE STAR. "When me see the rain set up to fall, me feel like me just wah leave and don't business what happen. Me tired of it, man, God know, but me just a hold out until better come."She lost some furniture and appliances, as well as her 11-year-old daughter's school supplies.

"Me baby book them all wet up, them not even have no use to her again. It a cost me right now to get them back, and me don't have it," she said. "She not even doing class now because the tablet that she did have take in water and it not working." The 40-year-old's main focus is to have her daughter accessing classes.

Devastated mother

"Me nuh mind if me get little help, even to get my baby girl the things she need for school. Me tell the teacher already say the water mash up her things so she say she will give me little time to buy back a tablet," said the devastated mother.

Rodriques lives in a two-bedroom board house in an area of the community called Lime Tree Lane. She has not recovered from previous flooding that damaged most of her property on October 5.

"All now me still a clean up, because when the water come in, a way up under me belly it reach me," she said. "This house is very low, so when the water come down, a straight inside it gone. All in my room a proper pool, everything a swim. All the settee that me have soak, it don't have any use again."

Rodriques is not the only victim of Marcus Garvey Drive dumping its excess water in Greenwich Town, as others have experienced flooding in their yards.

However, with the country experiencing tough economic times due to the effects of COVID-19, it appears unlikely that there will be any major work to deal with the drainage system of Marcus Garvey Drive. In August, E.G. Hunter, CEO of the National Works Agency, said it would cost about J$1 billion to put in place a drainage system for the roadway.

Tanesha Rodriques may be contacted via telephone at (876) 434-1090.