Abrahams urges faster progress on early warning strategy

Minister of Home Affairs and Information Wilfred Abrahams has identified gaps in the country’s early warning system in which hours passed before emergency broadcasts from official channels and partners reached the population.

And the minister used a second national consultation on the government’s Early Warning for All (EW4ALL) initiative on Monday to urge disaster managers and emergency organisations to speed up their plans for an early disaster warning strategy, warning of what looks to be one of the most active seasons on record.

“A follow-up study that was undertaken by [the Meteorological Services] realised that it took over two hours for the majority of Barbadians to actually receive the message; over two hours to get to 50 per cent, because . . . we put the message out, everybody did what they were supposed to do. They broadcast the message and then they resumed playing music, or whatever else, and did not broadcast the message again.

“It eventually got around by social media, but the point is yes, people did whatever it was they were supposed to do, but it was not enough. So these things are not theoretical exercises for us, because the practical consequences of a failed programme or the facility are too dire.”

Addressing the workshop’s opening at the Courtyard by Marriott, Hastings, Abrahams noted that the Director of Meteorological Services Sabu Best and other met experts have long predicted that in the face of climate change and other noted changes in weather patterns, the island should be prepared for an extended storm season.

The home affairs minister said: “Sabu has advised me that he expects that this year, we are going to have at least one if not more than one situation of an instant formation of some event. That’s what their models are predicting. We have developed our own models and the models have been very accurate.

“We have been increasingly getting weather systems impacting Barbados, not in June, but as early as May, so for our practical reasoning, we have decided to treat the start of the hurricane season as being May 1st. We expect that we are probably going to see some action or something happening in April. We cannot any longer fix the hurricane season as being from June 1st to November 31st. God and nature are not following the timelines that we set down.”

Given these predictions, accurate early warning systems are essential for public safety, and as such, timelines on such processes need to be brought up with urgency, said Abrahams.

“We have been looking at targets and things to do before the end of 2024, things to do before the end of 2025. I need us all to agree and commit to bringing forward those time frames. Let us do nothing in 2025 that we can actually get done in 2024, if possible, before May or June. We need to treat this with the urgency that was impressed upon me by the UN (United Nations). The urgency of it needs to be realised. We expect an exceedingly active hurricane season this year. I would like us to be in a position to warn all of you who live here as quickly as possible when we know something,” he added.

The minister suggested that the country’s draft multi-hazard early warning policy is critical to strengthening the country’s disaster laws to effectively manage hazards linked to climate change.

“Further to the passage of legislation, what is urgently required now is the acceleration of financing,” he added, noting the Green Climate Fund as a source of funds for the country’s implementation of the Early Warning For All initiative. (SB)