Each time a potentially dangerous weather system misses our country, I have heard the statement uttered that “God is a Bajan”. It is quite interesting to note that he is only a “Bajan” when he fits our agenda. Nevertheless, I am not one who shares this view.
I believe that we as a nation have been very fortunate over the years and as a result should be grateful that we have not suffered the same fate as some of our Caribbean neighbours.
Over the last three to five days as I travelled on the road, visited communities, talked to friends, family and strangers, and listened to the radio programmes, I was able to observe and document some of the good, the bad and the ugly that transpired during and after the passage of Tropical Storm Tomas.
The good. In every community I visited on Saturday morning, I saw people sincerely working together to attend to the needs of those who needed help. This really opened my eyes to the importance of having healthy relationships with those around us and underscores the value of reconciliation and forgiveness.1. As I continued on my journey, I was pleased to see many members of the Barbados Defence Force and the Royal Barbados Police Force assisting residents, as well as ensuringorder and safety.
2. I must give my highest gratitude and appreciation to the media houses, CBC and Starcom Network for their professionalism in the manner in which they kept the country up to date with pertinent information throughout and after the storm and collected information from citizens and disseminated it to the relevant authorities.
The bad. Many Barbadians were clearly unprepared for Tomas. This was evident by the number of citizens who swarmed supermarkets and gas stations hours before the storm passed, including the numerous reports of people not having adequate amounts of water stored. As a cadet I was taught the seven Ps: Prior Preparation and Planning Prevents a P. . . Poor Performance, and I believe we can all learn a lot from this creed.
3. It was disappointing and embarrassing to hear via a radio station that there was a hotel that was unable to feed 300 guests because there was no water or electricity. All I would say is, I would hate to know that there are hotels operating in Barbados that do not have backup generators or adequate water storage facilities.
4. It was shocking to hear that the Barbados Water Authority was waiting for the Barbados Light & Power to restore power to the pumping stations so they could begin to restore water to citizens. I would like to make a suggestion, that every pumping station in Barbados be outfitted with a backup generator so we would not have a repeat of what transpired over the last few days.
The UGLY. A shop was robbed during the passage of the storm.
1. Some people can be very self-centred and ungrateful at times. I became very upset when I heard a middle-aged woman call in to share her emergency: her MCTV antenna was down and she needed one of the emergency personnel to come and put it back up.
All in all, I think we as a community and family of Barbadians and non-nationals did well. However, I would say that there is a lot more we could have done as citizens to be better prepared and Iencourage us all to adopt the seven Ps for our daily living.•Corey Worrell is a former Commonwealth Youth Ambassador.
