Kalain Ho­sein

The Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties has ap­point­ed Sha­keer Baig act­ing As­sis­tant Di­rec­tor in the Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vices Di­vi­sion (MSD) to man­age the Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice (TTMS) op­er­a­tions.

The ap­point­ment took ef­fect from Au­gust 9. Baig joined the TTMS in 1989 as a me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal as­sis­tant and is a qual­i­fied me­te­o­rol­o­gist with train­ing from the Na­tion­al Hur­ri­cane Cen­ter and the Na­tion­al Weath­er Ser­vice in the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca. He has al­so served as the act­ing di­rec­tor of the Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vices Di­vi­sion on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions.

The change in the TTMS’ lead­er­ship comes on the heels of a bizarre ra­dio in­ter­view by the pre­vi­ous di­rec­tor of the MSD, Ezekiel Samp­son. Samp­son had dis­agreed with a de­ci­sion by the Na­tion­al Hur­ri­cane Cen­ter to up­grade Trop­i­cal Storm El­sa to a hur­ri­cane as it moved across Bar­ba­dos in ear­ly Ju­ly.

In­ex­plic­a­bly, Samp­son al­so said in ear­ly Ju­ly, “the sys­tem (El­sa) doesn’t have any mois­ture so, there­fore, I am not see­ing that sys­tem sur­viv­ing any fur­ther,” as the then Hur­ri­cane El­sa moved over the Caribbean Sea.

Fol­low­ing the in­ter­view, the Min­istry of Pub­lic Util­i­ties, un­der which the TTMS falls, is­sued a state­ment giv­ing de­tails about Hur­ri­cane El­sa and its ex­pect­ed im­pact on T&T.

The min­istry then launched an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the pub­lic ut­ter­ances. It was re­ferred to the Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PSC) and was dealt with un­der the Pub­lic Ser­vice Reg­u­la­tions.