BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - NEMA’s District Manager for the Old Road area, Zeke Boone told this media house that sometime around 8.30 and 8.35 on Thursday night (Feb: 10), he received a telephone call regarding an incident in his area.
“I received a telephone call from a road user informing me that they were some falling rocks over at Old Road Bay. As the NEMA’S representative for the area, I visited there and discovered what the problem was. When I got there I recognised that the entire road was blocked. Large boulders were on the road and this resulted in traffic not being able to be accessed properly and freely,” he said.
The NEMA District Manager said that he mobilised support and assistance in addressing the problem immediately.
“I proceeded by calling some heavy duty equipment operators in my area, Old Road, to assist in clearing the road so that road-users could use the road,” he noted.
Boone said they were able to have free and uninterrupted traffic returned sometime around 9.45 p.m. and pointed out that similar problems were experienced in that area in the past. He however noted that it was the worst to date, adding that it is also the first for the year.
“This is the worst situation that I can recount for the past few years that we’ve experienced,” he said.
Boone opined that the reason for the situation was due to loose soil in the area, adding that because there has been no major rainfall lately, the loose soil is unable to hold the boulders.
“The soil has been loose for some time and with no rain it (boulder) would just come down,” he said.
He is also warning motorists and pedestrians to exercise caution while traversing that area.
“Because the area is now loose, I urge all road users to be very careful when travelling in that area. This is very important as we are not sure if this will continue, and it could be today or sometime later. As such, I am appealing to all road users to be extremely careful.”
