Black River Mayor Richard Solomon says St Elizabeth remains dangerously unprepared for the Atlantic hurricane season, which begins in another two weeks, with more than half of its emergency shelters left unusable after Hurricane Melissa’s destruction last year.

Speaking at Thursday’s monthly St Elizabeth Municipal Corporation (StEMC) meeting, Solomon said inspections hadve already been completed on over 80 per cent of shelters across the parish, many of them schools and community centres badly damaged during the hurricane.

“More than 50 per cent of our shelters that we would have assessed already are not in a position to accommodate sheltering if we were to be hit by a hurricane,” said Solomon.