Fraud hurts relief effort

- Norman Grindley

Beris Ramsay, a resident of Bybrook in Portland views the destruction to his house, a portion of which was washed away by last week's flood rains which lashed the island. The Ramsay family is now staying with relatives in the area.

Garwin Davis and Gareth Davis, Gleaner Writers

MANY flood-ravaged victims in sections of Portland are still unable to get assistance because of what the Office of Disaster Preparedness say is their inability to get into some areas. And, to make a bad situation worse, unscrupulous individuals in the parish are making false claims about damage to their properties.

"Our efforts are made much harder when people make false claims, sometimes at the ex-pense of the true victims," said Pearlita Thomas, an officer for the Portland Red Cross Society.

"There have been instances where you have two persons making the same claim for the same premises," she explained.

Mrs. Thomas explained that there is only so much assistance that can be given, and some people have still not been reached.

"We have been taking the names of people and sending our volunteers out to verify the claims. We can't cover it all and at times the ones making the false claims will end up getting assistance which could have gone to someone else that is really in need," she added.

Allan Brown, a local volunteer who notes that "there are people making outlandish claims without thinking that they are capitalising on a tragedy", supports Mrs. Thomas' claims.

"It happens all the time there is a major flood around these parts," he said. "It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to check all the claims and, as the saying goes, the good will always suffer from the actions of the bad."

Mr. Brown points to the district of Shrewsbury where he said unco-ordinated drop off of emergency supplies resulted in what he called "total chaos.

"The intentions behind doing the drops were quite honourable but it was basically a case of who could grab the most or the fastest," he said. "Because there was no organised co-ordination in these cut-off areas the agencies had to resort to doing drops by air - some people I can tell you in several areas haven't received any assistance."

There are also reports that many residents in sections of Moore Park and Bybrook in the western end of the parish are yet to be reached because of massive landslides and a cutting off of the roads leading to their communities. According to parish co-ordinator for the ODPEM, Fay Neufville, the areas have been cut off since the flooding started last week and particularly Moore Park, she noted, where no assistance has been rendered.

"We reached Bybrook for the first time yesterday (Friday)," she said. "It was only then that we saw residents frantically waving to us from over the Moore Park district. We are hoping to drop off food, clothing, lanterns and bedding for them by air today (Saturday) that is the best that we can do."

Miss Neufville noted that her agency was instructed to spend $100,000 and which, according to her, has already been exhausted. The Ministry of Transportation and Work has already estimated that it will take an estimated $150 million to repair roads in the area, which many Portlanders have been calling a rather conservative figure.

"There is a lot of work that still has to be done," explained Pastor Delroy Farr, whose group of local volunteers has been doing yeoman service for the parish. "What we have been doing so far is to ensure that everybody is fed -- it doesn't matter who."

The Jamaica Labour Party in the meantime is advising Prime Minister P. J. Patterson to call out the Jamaica Defence Force to give emergency assistance in digging out the affected communities in Portland and St. Mary. In a statement to the press, Mr. Seaga noted that the flood damage is more serious than portrayed and at least 71 homes with 392 adults and 241 children in 10 areas have been displaced.