To­ba­go cur­rent­ly is un­der an Or­ange Lev­el Trop­i­cal Storm Warn­ing—the sec­ond most se­vere warn­ing—as Trop­i­cal Storm Gon­za­lo makes his pres­ence felt in the re­gion.

In ad­di­tion, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice (TTMS) has is­sued an Or­ange Lev­el Ad­verse Weath­er Alert for Trinidad, as well as a Yel­low Lev­el Haz­ardous Seas Alert for both is­lands, which will re­main in ef­fect un­til Sun­day.

As at 8:00 am to­day, the cen­tre of Gon­za­lo was lo­cat­ed near 10.3ON / 58.8OW. To­ba­go will be ex­pe­ri­enc­ing trop­i­cal storm con­di­tions for much of to­day, with pe­ri­ods of heavy to in­tense show­ers and/or thun­der­storms, like­ly.

The Met Ser­vice warns that heavy / in­tense down­pours can re­sult in street and flash flood­ing. Gusty winds in ex­cess of 85 km per hour can be ex­pect­ed, and there al­so is a high risk of land­slides / land­slips in ar­eas so prone. Sea con­di­tions al­so are like­ly to be­come oc­ca­sion­al­ly rough, hence the Yel­low Lev­el Haz­ardous Seas Alert is­sued.

Waves are ex­pect­ed to reach up to 4 me­tres around the To­ba­go coast­lines, and to a less­er ex­tent around the north and east­ern coasts of Trinidad. In shel­tered ar­eas, seas can be­come oc­ca­sion­al­ly chop­py with wave heights reach­ing up to 2 me­tres. Over­all, cit­i­zens are urged to avoid ven­tur­ing in­to the sea, if pos­si­ble.

For Trinidad, the Or­ange Lev­el Ad­verse Weath­er Alert will be in ef­fect un­til 8:00 pm.

Fore­cast­ers say there is a high chance (70%) of heavy show­ers or thun­der­storms dur­ing the pe­ri­od. They warn of pos­si­ble street / flash flood­ing, as well as land­slides / land­slips, in ar­eas so prone. Cit­i­zens al­so need to be aware that gusty winds in ex­cess of 65 km per hour can be ex­pe­ri­enced in the vicin­i­ty of heavy down­pours, as Trop­i­cal Storm Gon­za­lo makes his way past T&T.

All cit­i­zens are en­cour­aged to take im­me­di­ate ac­tions to pro­tect their lives, liveli­hoods and prop­er­ty, in­clud­ing:

Stock up on food, wa­ter and med­i­cine for at least sev­en days in wa­ter­proof con­tain­ers.
Se­cure loose out­door ob­jects and trim tree branch­es near your home.
Pre­pare and pre-po­si­tion sand­bags if your area floods.

The Met Ser­vice is ad­vis­ing all cit­i­zens to con­tin­ue mon­i­tor weath­er con­di­tions and up­dates from of­fi­cial sources via their web­site at metof­fice.gov.tt; and the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment, at odpm.gov.tt.