Monday, November 05, 2007

waterlogged

I'm pretty sure that most of Jamaica is pretty tired of the rain by now. I normally stay high and dry at home during this kind of weather so I had no complaints. It was a sunny morning when I set off for my parents house to have the usual Sunday lunch with the fambily but that quickly changed to a heavy downpour as the afternoon progressed.

It was only natural that the conversation changed to the inclement weather at hand and my sister mentioned her very wet (inside and out) car. Apparently she tried to drive on Mona Rd. last week during one of the bouts of rain and ended up in water half way up her doors. She of all persons should know that you don't drive on that road when rain falls heavily as her husband lost the use of his car for a couple of months after shutting off in floods on that same road a few months ago. It's a miracle she didn't shut off but its a shame she got all that dirty water in her car.

After filling our gut my sister and I were ready to leave so after waiting for the rain to die down a bit I left and she should have left shortly after too. After coming off Red Hills it quickly became apparent that my journey across town to my home would be a long one. The roads, when I could actually see them under the brown water, were torrents that brought traffic to a crawl. At first I made a u-turn when I saw some deep water but the alternative route was just as bad.

I eventually gave up on trying to find alternate paths and wished I didn't leave yet
and tried to call my sister to tell her to stay at the parents or go back there if she had not gotten herself into more trouble yet. By this time I was in water over 12" deep slowly creeping on where I suspected the road to be and wondering what to do. Thinking ahead of the roads I would eventually have to take to reach home the outlook was dismal.

By the time I reached home the undercarriage of my car should have been clean granted the amount of water I was in. The car didn't shut off and no water seeped inside so I was mostly happy. I dropped in a deep pothole once as I crept through some murky water but at 5km/h no damage was done unlike the pothole on the main road outside of my house. Yes the same pothole that was fixed last year was now back with a vengeance claiming over 100 cars in the past month. The latest of which was a Range Rover HSE which some lady managed to blow out two tires in on Saturday. She was waiting for somebody to come change her tires for her and I noticed she called somebody to pack the hole with sand/dirt... lol lets see how long before I hear people tires being blown out again.

8 comments:

IrieDiva said...

seriously i wanna know whats gonna happen when the rains finally do stop...they must stop right?

cus the roads are in serious disrepair! im right now laffing at all the young fools with their low sports cars...

Anonymous said...

It's just about time to consider an SUV as a vehicle of necessity. Well I cyhanged transmission in September courtesy of Mona Road :(

Two sets of people smiling at the rains...front end repairers and tyre people.

Dee said...

so sorry 4 ur sis's husband
that is tragic

Unknown said...

rain, rain, go away, come again another day. It's good that you get to have lunch with your fambily so often. If I was still in jamaica I would try to start a habit like that, as it is now, we don't even talk once a week. Tis sad.

Ann (MobayDP) said...

Thankfully right now in Mobay we're not having as heavy rains as you guys are in Kingston. We get a heavy downpour maybe once or twice a day and then intermittent showers the rest of the day and night. The sky is this depressing grey and the whole place is just muddy and miserable and the traffic is horrendous!

I cannot even begin to imagine the number of work hours lost because people are just stuck for hours in traffic!

Thankfully you and your sister made it home safely.

Adrian said...

@diva.. low sports cars.. $10+mil suv. it makes no difference, the potholes claim all.

@gc: that man just has a big pot of bad luck when it comes to that car.. he seems to be loaded though so he should survive.

@scratchie: suvs guzzle so much gas.. its probably cheaper to drive a car and fix it later :p

@alex: fambily has the best food :D

@ann: lol we need a flexi hour work week and everybody should be happy.

Anonymous said...

well, at least now we get a little bit of sunshine in the morning hours...Wheel alignment and balancing people will also make a killing when the rains finally stop! not to mention the contractor who will fix (for the want of a better word)the roads for the next shower of rain!!!!

Unknown said...

That's why i avoid driving through Kingston on rainy days in peak traffic time! I didn't drive through to much water at all. I stay put or head to the gym after work, it's much better than wasting time in traffic!