Hurricane Damage Concerns: Six Men’s, St Peter Residents Call for Coastal Protection Measures

Residents of Six Men’s, St Peter, are concerned about their future following the damage caused by Hurricane Beryl.

The coastal community suffered extensive damage to the road, the popular Braddy’s Bar and the community centre.

One resident, who gave his name as “Charlie Boat”, said they had been told a breakwater would be built to protect them but that has never materialised.

“What is to happen with the fisherfolk here? Where the road break ’way is where we used to push off and pull up our boats,” he said.

Another resident lamented the lack of a plan to protect them from the ravages of nature.

“I don’t believe enough is being done to protect the coastal areas to the north of the island. While this particular hurricane was definitely record-breaking, as some of the older persons in the communities themselves said that they had never seen the sea like that, more should have been done before it got to this point.

“Over the years, all types of people from regional or international organisations come and visit us to showcase the area and the problem. They seem to always make their way to Six Men’s and Half Moon Fort (in St Lucy) because we are the poster children for coastal zone problems. My thing is, it’s not that [the authorities] don’t know there’s a problem, so the question is, why is no one doing more to fix it?

“There are minor things that can be done to give some level of protection in the interim while we’re looking for the bigger projects to arise,” she said.

She suggested boulders or groynes could be put into place as breakwaters as a short-term measure.

“If we keep worrying about a long-term plan, there may not be a long-term plan to be installed at all because the people may be gone. The whole thing may be gone. Because within this last week, on that day of the hurricane, we experienced waves that, as I said, we’ve never seen before,” she said.

Clayton Powley said getting the centre back up was important as it was a popular spot to lime. As a mason, he said he was willing to help out. He too said there was a need for a breakwater.

Member of Parliament for St Peter Colin Jordan maintained the people of Six Men’s were not being ignored.

“We will do as much as we can as quickly as we can but it will take time. The Prime Minister toured on Tuesday, along with myself, Minister [of Home Affairs Wilfred] Abrahams and [Deputy Prime Minister Santia] Bradshaw, so we saw first-hand the damage. We know work must be done not only at Six Men’s but right along the entire West Coast,” he told the DAILY NATION.