Trelawny MC at advanced stage of preparation for hurricane season

The Trelawny Municipal Corporation is reporting that its preparation for the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season is in an advanced state.

The hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30.

According to Chairman of the Trelawny Municipal Corporation and Falmouth Mayor, Colin Gager, a drain-cleaning exercise funded by the Parochial Revenue Fund and a $25 million provision from the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), is under way in Falmouth, the parish capital.

“That is being used to focus on Falmouth, and we are also looking at others area to ensure that all access to sinkholes and any channel that takes away water from the various areas, are cleaned,” said Gager.

He also disclosed that the preparation of emergency shelters is under way.

“We are working closely with our disaster co-ordinator and making sure that our shelters are up and running. Our shelter managers are trained so that in case of a disaster, people will have somewhere that they can shelter,” the mayor said.

He added that with the advent of COVID-19, the municipality has plans in place to increase the number of emergency shelters in the parish.

“We are looking to see how much space will be at the shelters. If, for example, we were using a certain section of a school, now we would have to use more sections… more classrooms, so that people won’t be clustered together. We are also looking at identifying new areas that can be used as shelters,” Gager said.