As Barbados prepares for an above-average 2013 hurricane season with 18 projected named storms, the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) has stressed that disaster management is a shared responsibility.
This was the word from DEM’s director Judy Thomas, speaking about national hurricane preparedness during a Press conference at DEM’s Warrens, St Michael office recently.
Noted hurricane forecasters Dr William Gray and Philip Klotzbach of Colorado State University have predicted an above-average season and have named 18 storms, nine hurricanes and four major hurricanes during the six-month season.
Thomas said that DEM was in the process of getting the country’s Emergency Management System up and running.
She explained that setting up the system was to meet, in a structured manner, the need for private and public sector agencies, community-based, non-governmental, regional and national organizations to play a vital role in the event of national disasters.
“I would ask therefore that Barbadians take this hurricane season . . . in context of what is happening worldwide with floods all across Europe and to know that we are part of a real world and our time will come at some point,” Thomas said.
She added that in the event of a hurricane, public assistance can be accessed by individuals who are indigent, below the socio-economic provision, or elderly. She indicated that people with insurance or unqualified for public assistance would not fit the criteria.
Meanwhile, the Barbados Meteorological Office’s acting director Hamden Lovell implored Barbadians to pay attention to warnings from the meteorological office.
“It only takes one major storm or hurricane to do major damage here in the Eastern Caribbean and . . . remember to treat every tropical wave coming across the Atlantic as a potential hurricane,” said Lovell.
The 2013 hurricane names are Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dorian, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Nestor, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya and Wendy. (AH)
