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Production
Estimates and Crop Assessment Division |
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Production
Estimates and Crop Assessment Division |
May 28, 2003
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters are pointing to an active 2003 Atlantic Ocean hurricane season. Heavy rainfall fell across Jamaica May 23-26, prompting flash floods which caused property damage, mostly in the easternmost of the country’s 14 parishes. FAS Kingston sources preliminarily estimate the overall damage to agriculture at less than U.S. $8 million, not as destructive as the late-May 2002 event, which claimed 7 lives and caused over U.S. $10 million in agricultural damage. This year’s late-May cloudburst is another in a series of unfavorable weather experiences for agricultural interests in the region of the Caribbean Sea.
A line of low pressure spawned torrential downpours across Jamaica and the adjacent waters between May 23-27, rendering a single-day total of nearly 10 inches at one location in south Jamaica. Parishes on the east and south sides of the island, particularly Portland, Saint Andrew, Saint Catherine, and Clarendon bore the brunt of the rainfall.
The Bailey Bridge, which connects Saint Andrew Parish and Saint Thomas parish (to the east), collapsed. The original bridge on this spot, called the Yalllahs Fording, was washed by Hurricane Lilli (October 2002) Without the Bailey Bridge, small producers will have difficulty transporting goods to market across the major traffic artery along the coast.
Banana and orange harvesting in Portland and Saint Thomas has stopped; fruit has been lost to the storm‘s driving wind and rains, and revenue will be lost to conditions that prevent field activity and transport to the marketplace. Sugarcane operations will be delayed due to wet fields; however, most cane fields were just entering the re-growth stage, and recovery should be relatively uncomplicated. Preliminary reports say although several important vegetable production areas of Saint Catherine, Clarendon, and Manchester were inundated with water, those fields faired well in this event.
Previous Updates
Hurricanes and Tropical Storms Plentiful in Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea:
September 25, 2002
Heavy Rains Soak Jamaica: June 4, 2002
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