Search still on for Walters matriarch

WESTERN BUREAU:

IT HAS been 18 days since 68-yearold Beryl Walters was washed away in floodwaters in Montego Bay, St James, and the St James Municipal Corporation is entering the final phase of its search effort to locate the elderly woman, who has been feared dead.

Speaking with The Gleaner yesterday, Montego Bay Deputy Mayor Richard Vernon said that the search will continue this weekend to find Walters, who was swept away along with her 12-year-old granddaughter, Jennel Walters, when their family car got washed into a gully at Westgate during heavy rains.

Walters’ husband and their adult daughter, who were also in the car, were rescued shortly after the mishap. However, Jennel’s body was later recovered near Montego Bay’s cruise ship pier.

“We have not called the search off. We have one more thing we need to do: to clear out a section of the exit of the river, where the river meets the sea around by the [offices of the] Urban Development Corporation, and then we will decide from there what we are doing afterwards,” said Vernon.

“Once we clear that up, we will reconvene a follow-up meeting to one that we had earlier with the Emergency Operations Centre, and we will make a decision from there. By Monday we should have a finalised update,” Vernon added.

“If we do not see any sign of anything, we will have to call it [off ], and we cannot do anything about that,” he explained further. “We want to be satisfied that we have done enough, and the family will, hopefully, be satisfied we have done enough to resolve the situation.”

For several days following the April 19 mishap, extensive searches were conducted of the Montego River area in an effort to find Walters.

Relatives and members of the Mount Salem Seventh-day Adventist Church, where Walters was a member, also conducted their own search of the river.

So, too, did representatives of the St James Municipal Corporation, the Jamaica Constabulary Force, and the Cornwall Bar Association.

Poor infrastructure and a lacklustre garbage collection system were blamed for the flood conditions that led to the tragedy.

In the meantime, Vernon gave assurance that assistance will be given to the family members if they should need help making funeral arrangements for Jennel, who was a grade seven student at Montego Bay High School. A date has not yet been announced for the service.

“We have given the commitment to the family members that, if there is anything we can do to help them, we will see how best we can help them. There is no barring us from giving that type of assistance, and it is highly likely that will happen, once they reach out to us,” said Vernon. “It all depends on how the family wants to deal with the situation, but our commitment to the family still stands.”

Christine Gilbert, Jennel’s mother, has announced her intention to launch a foundation in memory of the student to help less fortunate Jamaicans in education and healthcare.