By
Nathan 'Jolly’ Green. July 23, 2020.

Have
Sandals been told the truth about Buccament Bay Resort? I ask the
question because Ralph Gonsalves may just have forgot. Nothing to do
with mendaciousness although that did cross my mind. So, did you tell
them, comrade?

Have
Sandals been warned that Buccament Bay Resort sits on an ancient and
historic flood plain which has flooded several times in the memory of
man? It last severely flooded in December 2013 when several employees
of Buccament Bay Resort, then being operated by Harlequin, drowned.
Also, several villagers perished in the flooding leaving the whole
nation aghast.

There
is no way to know when it will flood again, today, tomorrow, next
week, next year, in ten years? There is absolutely no way of knowing
and no way to prewarn when the flash flood will occur, night or day.
If it happens again, or more positively when it happens again,
because it will, as it has done for millions of years, people could
die again. Perhaps once again when least expected guests and
employees will perish.

Some
rock filled gabions placed, and river defence have been carried out
since the last flood. But that is, in my opinion, inadequate in
containing the ferocity of the Buccament river flooding when it
occurs, more so if a sea-surge takes place at the same time.

I
am not even sure Sandals can insure against such a risk seeing it is
beyond being a risk and is an actual reoccurring event waiting for
when next to happen.

The
Buccament flooding is classified in law as a 100-year event. Which
does not mean it will only happen every 100 years. It means that it
is an event that will occur once in every 100 big cloud bursts or
storms. If you had a hundred of those in a day, there are
probabilities that such flooding will occur. If it happens in a week,
then once a week, if it occurs in a year once a year etc. A
100-year flood is a flood event that has a 1 in 100 chance (1%
probability) of being equalled or exceeded in any given year. A
common misunderstanding is that a 100-year flood is likely to occur
only once in 100 years. There is approximately a 63.4% chance of one
or more 100-year floods occurring in any 100 years.

The
100-year flood is also referred to as the 1% flood since its annual
exceedance probability is 1%. For coastal or lake flooding, the
100-year flood is generally expressed as a flood elevation or depth
and may include wave effects. For river systems, the 100-year flood
is usually shown as a flowrate. Based on the expected 100-year flood
flow rate, the flood water level can be mapped as an area of
inundation. Areas such as Buccament which adjoin the coast can also
be flooded by combinations of the tide, storm surge, and waves. So,
in the case of Buccament, there is not just the probability of the
flood plain being inundated by water from the river and extreme
runoff from the surrounding mountain arena. But also, from inundation
by sea surge, if both happened simultaneously, the whole resort would
be swept into the sea.

The
current villas are built without foundations; they are built on
concrete slabs. Such construction in a flood plain and sea surge area
is bad engineering because, in such environments, slabs and villas
can quite simply float away. The initial planning before construction
called for the raising of the land by ten feet, pilings, and footings
for the villa bases. But Harlequin decided to cut costs at the
expense of safety and security and abandoned that engineering
necessity. So basically, the structures are unsafe for habitation in
the floodplain and sea surge area that Buccament is in.

So I
hope that Sandals have appropriately been made aware of the problems
at Buccament, if not they are put on notice by this letter/article,
that now knowing about the risks they will be fully responsible for
claims against them at some time in the future. It will not be
classed as an act of God but an unpreventable tragedy which they were
warned about.

I also
at this time enquire if the Court orders in favour of certain people
who brought some of the villas, giving them priority payment in full
of costs and interest at the time of resale have been satisfied? I
also enquire how the PM and the government can enter a contract of
sale when the property is in the hands of a
receiver/liquidator/administrator legally appointed by the court?

I am not
sure precisely what kind of deal has been signed, I suspect it is an
MOU.

The
legality of sale seems to have been taken care of; this was published
after I wrote this letter

https://www.iwnsvg.com/2020/07/23/govt-owns-buccament-resort-property-for-now/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=govt-owns-buccament-resort-property-for-now

[Did you
mention compulsory purchase comrade, mmh?]

Sandals
needs to be very aware that they for the sake of their investor and
shareholder get proper surveying carried out, and an accurate report
on the flood-plain aspect before they conclude any deal. It is most
unfortunate that Harlequin never took those precautions, so they were
unaware of the flood plain aspect until it flooded, and several
employees were drowned in the raging torrent.

Sandals
will have an international airport in the equation; Harlequin only
had the promise which never happened in their time. Harlequin would
have had a chance of success if they had the airport operational.

To
finish, I would like to enquire if PM Dr Ralph E Gonsalves wife, Mrs
Eloise Gonsalves will have a contract to carry out the interior
design and furnishings of all, or some of the Villas when they are
finished as she had with Harlequin.

Also,
just one more request, I must ask if the comrades' cousin, Senator
Julian Francis, will be acting as Mr Fixit for Sandals as he was for
Harlequin. He invited people to go to him if they needed help with
Harlequin; it is recorded in several news stories.

Oh!
Something else, will the ex-Harlequin employees get the wages and
severance they did not get from Harlequin? You have made no mention
of this, please tell us their status for payment. Is there any
provision for those workers that worked for months without pay, only
to be dumped with no severance?

Here are
a few useful articles on the matter, there are over a thousand if you
check out your search engines.

https://www.iwnsvg.com/2014/04/26/were-buccament-flood-deaths-murder-by-governmental-neglect/

https://www.tropicalconnections.co.uk/neglect-dereliction-duty/

https://www.facebook.com/CCDRMFundCanadaCaribbeanDisasterRiskManagementFund/posts/resort-developer-denies-building-on-st-vincent-flood-plainpublished-on-december-/570956049648247/

Harlequin denied they built on a flood plain, but that denial is worthless because it is a fact that they did. Perhaps they did not knowingly build on a flood plain, because they were probably never told or warned, or their now-deceased lawyer never did any searches. But the fact is that they did build on a flood plain, and the resort remains on a flood plain, and always will.

END

DISCLAMER: The opinion, belief and viewpoint expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinion, belief and viewpoint of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com or official policies of iNews Cayman/ieyenews.com