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The Saint Lucia Meteorological Services expects Tropical Storm Bret to come directly across the Island based on the current forecast.
“We are expecting that this system will come directly across Saint Lucia based on the forecast models. So we are hoping that persons take heed,” Director Andre Joyeux said.
With the weather system about forty-eight hours away, the National Emergency Management Advisory Council (NEMAC) held a meeting chaired by Education Minister Shawn Edward on Tuesday.
Edward is Chairman of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA).
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However, he was deputising at the NEMAC gathering for Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre.
Pierre was chairing the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Board Meeting in Saint Lucia.
Edward said he was pleased by the interventions of the various stakeholders at the NEMAC gathering.
And he advised citizens to heed information from the Met Office, the central government, and the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO).
The Dennery North MP noted a tendency when disaster looms, or a system is approaching for people to feed from sources that are not always credible.
“You should not entertain rumours,” Edward asserted, adding that people should take information from the Met Office seriously.
He explained that meteorology is not an exact science.
In addition, Edward observed that some predictions might not necessarily unfold as forecast, through no fault of the forecasters.
“This is just how dynamic nature can be where you come, and you predict a system today, and that can change tomorrow. It is always better for us to be safe than sorry,” Edward said.
“So if it is that we are told that we should expect heavy rains and there’s a potential for flooding, people should take that into consideration even if tomorrow when you wake up, you notice we have clear skies and you have no flood waters,” the Minister stated.
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He recalled telling Tuesday’s NEMAC meeting that losing a day’s work or a week of school instruction was better than losing a life.
“We can always replace property, but we do not want for anybody to perish in times of disaster,” Edward said.
But he said it was too early to speak of any shutdown, explaining that established protocols would inform later decision-making regarding the storm.
Weather experts expect Bret to remain a tropical storm when it moves into the Caribbean.
They say it could be a stronger tropical storm with sustained winds around 65 mph when it moves across the Lesser Antilles on Thursday and Thursday night.
Headline photo: NEMAC meeting in progress.
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