THE police have blamed four deaths on Tropical Storm Gustav; the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) said it could be between five and 11; while Prime Minister Bruce Golding opted for caution, saying that even though the death toll could rise as high as 11, he wanted to be absolutely sure before giving a definitive number.
"I don’t want to give a number. I am concerned that there are still a number of persons unaccounted for," Golding told reporters at a news briefing yesterday at Jamaica House. "We were told that there was a vehicle which had four passengers and it was swept away while attempting to cross a ford. We know there were a number of houses that collapsed along the Hope River and we are still trying to determine how many lives may have been lost.
"In a number of instances, they told me, the persons had actually vacated the houses before they went down. In one case, the owner of the house told me that he was able to escape but there was somebody on the upper floor who, he said, perished when the house collapsed. It is a little sketchy. We are trying to confirm the number. We could be looking at as many as 10 or 11 persons who have died. But I can’t be absolutely sure," he said.
Golding held the news conference after viewing damage in sections of Kingston left by Gustav’s two-day six mph slow march across the island that started Thursday.
Almost 1,000 persons were forced into shelters Thursday night as Gustav pelted the island with fierce winds that peeled roofs, knocked off tree branches and left people without electricity. The storm also soaked the country, triggering flooding and mudslides which destroyed homes and crops.
Yesterday, the ODPEM’s director general, Ronald Jackson, said that they had received information of five deaths so far, but that the figure could rise when the result of the search for the car with four persons, which was washed away in St Thomas, is known.
The death toll could also increase if rumours were confirmed that two boys drowned in Vineyard Town, where the McGregor Gully broke.
The ODPEM’s tally so far includes three persons from East Rural St Andrew communities, including Gordon Town and Kintyre and two from St Catherine (Brown’s Hall/Marley Hill).
But the police said that they can only confirm four.
The Constabulary Communication Network said that a 57-year-old man, Gilbert Wright, lost his life in Marley Hill, St Catherine when his house collapsed and fell on him during Thursday night's rains.
The body of the woman found in the Harbour View area yesterday, being washed out to sea, they believe, is one of a couple whose house crashed into the Hope River on Thursday night. The man is still missing, but is believed dead.
The third death the police confirmed was that of an unidentified man who was an occupant of a car which was washed away while trying to cross the Murray Gully at 11 Miles, Bull Bay, St Thomas.
There has been speculation that there were four persons in the car when it was washed away while trying to cross the gully. But the police said that they can only confirm two passengers — a man who had only returned home recently for holidays and whose body was found in the car, and a friend known only as ‘Shorty’, who is also presumed dead but whose body is still missing.
The police also said that a CIB team from Spanish Town had reported another death at Brown’s Hall, St Catherine, but the details were unavailable because of lack of radio contact.
But even while the police islandwide tried to ascertain how many deaths are attributable to the storm, they came across other deaths which residents had wrongfully linked to the storm.
For example, the body of a woman identified as Nesta Wilson of Ocean View Avenue, Kingston 2, was found at her home yesterday. Neighbours felt she had died during the storm, but police investigations revealed that the body was in an advanced state of decomposition, which meant she died sometime before the storm. A man in Manchester died while picking breadfruits from a tree on Thursday. Residents claimed that it was Gustav’s winds which caused him to fall, but the police said he died sometime before the storm hit the parish.
