Tropical Storm Gustav moved across sections of the island yesterday uprooting trees and destroying houses, while causing landslides and infrastructural damage.
There were also reports of road accidents and evacuation excercises.
At press time last night, the system had moved across St Thomas, St Catherine and was on course to Clarendon, but caused rainfall over most parishes.
In St Thomas, there were reports of damaged houses and several blocked roads.
The Office of Disaster Prepared-ness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), said three houses in Spring Bank, St Thomas, were reportedly destroyed, while roads in White Hall, Windsor Forest, Bath, Stokes Hall, Hordley, Barnett Gap and Gooden Valley were all blocked by fallen trees.
Landslide
The Winchester main road in the parish was also blocked by fallen tress, while a landslide blocked the road leading from Whitehall to Golden Valley for which there is reportedly no alternate route.
In Portland, fallen trees blocked roads in Nonsuch, Fairy Hill and Sherwood Forest. The road from Long Bay to Manchioneal was also blocked by debris while the road from Hope Bay to St Margaret's Bay was dubbed slippery.
In St Ann, St Mary and Manchester, there were reports of partially blocked roads, fallen light poles and at least two road accidents.
There were reports of infrastructural damage in St Andrew as the Newcastle main road was impassable.
Voluntary evacuation reportedly had to be undertaken at infirmaries in sections of Bull Bay, St Andrew, St James and Trelawny.
Senior Director of Mitigation, Planning and Research at ODPEM, Michelle Edwards told THE STAR that there will be continuous monitoring of the situation.
"ODPEM will remain at full scale activation," Edwards said. Up until 6:00 p.m. yesterday she said, there were 31 shelters with about 700 persons islandwide. "More shelters will be opened if the need arises," she added.
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