Hurricane Wilma is now being hailed as the most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic. During the course of last night the pressure dropped to an all time low of 882 mb. Although the eye of the hurricane did not make land fall on Jamaican shores the outer bands were sufficient to cause severe damage island wide.
Heavy rains continued to lash Jamaica for the sixth day straight causing more land slides and flooding out communities. Portmore, Central Village, Old Harbour in St. Catherine and areas in Clarendon are some of the sectors most affected by the rising waters.
Today travellers from Portmore and Spanish Town via the Causeway and Mandela Highway respectively into Kingston suffered delays of four hours and more. Many motorists turned back home after reaching no where fast. Some were actually turned back by the police on the Causeway which became completely blocked.

Follow up:

The air wing of the Jamaica Defense Force (JDF) was mobilized by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) to airlifted persons in Clarendon as their houses were engulfed by water. Residents in Big Pond, St Catherine had to be rescued as there were marooned in their communities. There have also been reports of a tornado like system which destroyed houses in Clarendon.
Some other areas where flooding has been reported includes:
Sections of Alligator Pond in St. Elizabeth. Mandeville in Manchester.
In St. Ann the communities of Cave Valley, Thatch Walk, Ping Ping Gully and Swamp. In St. Elizabeth, Powell Town, Crawford to Hodges and Fullerwood main road. Also several houses in Kennedy Grove, May Pen were completely submerged.
The National works agency will have there hands full once the waters subside as the road works throughout the island have been devastated. In many places what used to be asphalt now resembles river beds. As one man said, ‘the asphalt buss up’. There are deep holes in roads everywhere. In some areas complete portions of roadways have collapsed.
Eleven shelters across the island have so far been opened. The weather reports say that the rains should begin to subside by tomorrow. However the radar picture looks to me that there is still quite a bit of rain left to come our way. Let’s just pray I’m wrong.
It’s amazing but most people are saying the same thing. This has been the worst experience of flooding they have ever seen in Jamaica. Even without a direct hit from Hurricane Wilma we still felt the full brunt of her fury. All that was missing was the wind factor.
Nuff Love.