HUNDREDS OF people dislocated by torrential rains associated with tropical storm Lili were left hungry for hours yesterday due to the late arrival of food at their emergency shelters.
Isaac Nugent, acting parish disaster co-ordinator for Kingston and St. Andrew, said yesterday that a number of displaced residents had poured into the Bull Bay Police Station in St. Andrew, while numerous others visited the New Haven Seventh-Day Adventist Church to list their needs.
Up to late yesterday, Mr. Nugent said he was unable to provide figures on the exact number of residents who filed reports at the two registration centres. However, on Monday, he said about 250 people from between Bull Bay and New Haven were being housed in seven shelters.
"When the registration is done, investigators will have to verify these claims," he said. He said the Salvation Army was spearheading the provision of food to evacuees at the various St. Andrew shelters. But, Patricia Morgan, Councillor for the Dallas Division in St. Andrew, said residents in shelters in her division didn't receive any food.
"From morning the people are there and they have not even got some ice water," she said minutes to 4:00 p.m., adding Mr. Nugent had told her food was on its way.
Ms. Morgan said that a kind resident had cooked a pot of soup for the displaced residents who had nothing from which to drink the soup. She said she was requesting the help of a 'good Samaritan' to donate some foam cups.
Contacted again, Mr. Nugent said Salvation Army officials told him they gave the Bull Bay residents enough food supplies on Monday night that were expected to last until Tuesday morning. The officials, he said, also told him yesterday that they were on their way to Bull Bay with a fresh supply of rations for the displaced residents.
