NHC chief urges caution as hurricane hunter visits

The top hurricane watcher in the United States has urged Barbadians and residents in the region to take the hurricane season seriously and brace themselves not just for severe winds during intense storms but also for flooding.

Michael Brennan, Director of the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) in Miami, Florida, brought the message to journalists here during the second stop of a Caribbean Hurricane Awareness Tour, being organised by the NHC and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) at the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) on Thursday.

He said that though much of the attention surrounding hurricanes comes from the intensity of their winds, storm surge and flooding scenarios cause a significant amount of damage in the Caribbean.

“We also can have impacts in Barbados from storms that pass to the north like Hurricane Tammy last year, [which] produced heavy rainfall. Rain flooding is one of the more dangerous hazards in the Caribbean, in particular in areas of topography and mountainous areas, and that has very little to do with how strong a storm is . . . it doesn’t take a Category 3, 4, 5 hurricane to produce heavy rainfall and catastrophic flooding on these islands. So people need to be prepared.”

He added: “The message right now is preparedness. Be ready for the upcoming hurricane season. It only takes one storm affecting your area, regardless of what any kind of seasonal forecast might say for how busy or not busy the Atlantic hurricane season will be. Here in the Caribbean, you have to be ready the entire hurricane season, all the way from June 1st through the end of November.”

Brennan was joined in his appeal by Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams: “Being ‘weather-ready’ really means being aware of what the weather could be . . . what is coming, and preparing for its impact with an effective and safe response.”

During the tour of the US Air Force Reserve WC-130J Hurricane Hunter aircraft, the minister had the chance to learn about the several instruments and tech used by the aeroplanes that investigate an intense weather system.

After the tour, he gave his thanks for the team’s work.

Abrahams said: “Not only is today’s visit extremely timely, but also instructive. We recognise the work from the team from the National Hurricane Centre, and what they continue to do as they prepare themselves to be deployed directly into the core of any significant and threatening storm in the Caribbean region, to collect critical data for forecasting a storm’s intensity.

“Storm data on the atmospheric conditions, which is then sent to the National Hurricane Centre forecasters, allows them to forecast weather predictions. This in turn allows the Barbados Met Service to improve their forecasting models, and better understand what the weather is doing or could do as we adequately plan for it.” (SB)