Health Minister Anthony Eden insisted last week that government hasn’t forgotten about residents of the oft-flooded Cumber Avenue area in Bodden Town.
Mr. Eden said a damage assessment of the street, which flooded during Hurricane Paloma’s passage, was being wrapped up last week. He said furniture, beds, and certain home supplies would be made available for residents in the area by government.
‘There are 11 homes in the specific area of Cumber and one on the adjoining area on Monument Road that got significant water damage,’ Mr. Eden said. ‘The government has committed that we will assist the people in that area.’
One family had to be evacuated from its Cumber Avenue home because of flooding and storm damage.
Mr. Eden acknowledged that a perennial problem with flooding has not been resolved in that area since additional development occurred within the past decade.
‘The extent of the flooding, which happened over the last seven to eight years, is compounded by the water not being able to flow out of there,’ he said. ‘Because of development on the back side of Cumber, that water used to free flow into the North Sound…that water has now been blocked from flowing freely and is backing up into Cumber.’
Cumber Avenue residents had earlier criticised government officials for showing up immediately after a flood but not doing anything to alleviate the problem following their visits.
‘Residents are sick and tired of the same story, which was said a long time before Hurricane Ivan,’ said Cumber resident Twyla Vargas (see Caymanian Compass, 17 November). ‘They need to do something now about the situation.’
Mr. Eden said the National Roads Authority had committed to study several areas on Grand Cayman where chronic flooding problems occur after rains, including Cumber Avenue.
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