Meteorologist/Reporter
kalain.hosein@guardian.co.tt
With forecasters expecting Hurricane Beryl to move across the Windward Islands as a Category 3 hurricane tonight and into tomorrow, government officials and public utilities have been making preparations for a major storm.
Islands from Grenada to St Lucia, including Barbados, were under a Hurricane Warning, while Tobago and Martinique were placed under a Tropical Storm Warning. Dominica remained under Tropical Storm Watch.
In Grenada, the island’s National Emergency Advisory Committee remained in discussions late into the night. Grenada’s electricity company, GRENLEC, urged its customers to prepare for unplanned outages due to weather conditions and landslides.
The island experienced inclement weather ahead of Beryl, causing numerous outages on the island.
Meanwhile, Grenada’s National Water and Sewerage Authority said “a planned island-wide network shutdown of water systems will likely occur a few hours before the expected impact of the hurricane.”
Barbados is the first country expected to be affected by Beryl today, based on the forecast from the National Hurricane Centre. The island’s Minister of Information, Wilfred Abrahams, who also holds the portfolio of Home Affairs, said the Government started its preparations, including removing fishing vessels from the water, cleaning drains and waterways, and flushing Bridgetown and other areas.
In St Vincent and the Grenadines, the country’s Prime Minister, Ralph Gonsalves, urged Vincentians to brace for the expected arrival of Hurricane Beryl tomorrow.
Gonsalves, in a national address yesterday, called for the postponement of events scheduled for this evening and urged residents to begin storm preparations immediately.
He said all bars in Kingstown, the country’s capital, will be closed by 9 pm today. All emergency shelters on the island will be activated by 6 pm today, encouraging people to bring water, medication, food supplies, and other basic supplies.
Gonsalves said their National Emergency Operations Centre will be fully activated by 8 pm today.
In St Lucia, the country’s Prime Minister Philip J Pierre said in a statement, “I once again call on Saint Lucians to stay informed by monitoring updates and information from authorised sources, namely, Saint Lucia Meteorological Services, the National Emergency Management Organisation, and the Government of Saint Lucia, as they will provide accurate information and guidance as the situation progresses.”