National readiness effort intensifies for hurricane season

Barbados entered the 2026 Atlantic Hurricane Season on Monday with government agencies, emergency responders and key interest groups reporting a high state of readiness to respond to any natural disaster.

Preparedness was no longer optional but essential to national survival and sustainable development, Minister of Home Affairs Gregory Nicholls told the official launch of the hurricane season at the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) headquarters. 

He revealed that over the past two weeks, Prime Minister Mia Mottley chaired national disaster risk management hurricane readiness meetings aimed at ensuring effective national coordination and emergency management systems.

MInister of Home Affairs and Information, Gregory Nicholls. (Photo Credit: Lourianne Graham/Barbados TODAY)

“We are investing in early warning systems and strengthening emergency communication networks to ensure that accurate information reaches the public quickly and efficiently before and after severe weather events. Infrastructure resilience also remains a national priority.”

He added: “Government continues to undertake drainage improvements in vulnerable communities, strengthen coastal defences, and invest in infrastructure upgrades designed to better withstand extreme weather conditions.”

The government was also continuing public awareness campaigns to improve household and community preparedness and vowed to maintain collaboration with regional and international partners, Nicholls said. 

“We will continue collaborating with regional and international partners, investing in preparedness infrastructure and building stronger systems capable of protecting lives and livelihoods. The hurricane season is a reminder not only of the challenges we face but also of the resilience, determination, and unity that define the Caribbean people together through preparation, cooperation, and vigilance.”

The military had completed its annual hurricane preparedness programme and stood ready to support national response efforts, according to Chief of Staff of the Barbados Defence Force (BDF), Brigadier Carlos Lovell. 

BDF Chief of Staff, Brigadier Carlos Lovell. (Photo Credit: Lourianne Graham/Barbados TODAY)

“We stand ready to support the national emergency response effort,” said the brigadier. “Over the past several months, we have reviewed and updated our contingency plans, inspected equipment and facilities, and verified the readiness of our personnel and assets. We have conducted training and emergency response exercises, which were designed to ensure a rapid and comprehensive response should the need arise.”

Experiences over the past decade had reinforced the importance of preparedness, Lovell said.

“Those experiences reinforce three important lessons. Lesson one: Communities that prepare early suffer less. Lesson number two: agencies and groups that train together respond better. And lesson number three, communities that take readiness seriously recover faster. Barbadians, those lessons have strengthened our procedures, sharpened our planning, and enhanced our readiness for whatever the season may bring.”

He said the BDF remained prepared to provide a range of services during any emergency:

“The BDF stands ready to provide engineering, transport, maritime communication, medical and service support as part of a wider national response, but effective disaster management has never been about one agency; it is about partnerships.”

Director of the Department of Emergency Management Kerry Hinds said the agency had intensified its readiness efforts in recent months through legislative, policy and operational reviews.

“That would include legislative reviews of our Emergency Management Act. It would include policy reviews and our various procedures. It also includes looking at our various facilities, our equipment, ensuring that it is ready. It is about training our emergency responders, training our community personnel, training our partners. It is about ensuring that we have the necessary memorandum of understanding, because we know, as the Department of Emergency Management, we cannot do it alone.”

Hinds also issued a national call for preparedness.“Let us make a commitment today to be prepared to make preparedness contagious as households, as businesses, as communities, as government, as we get ready, it is important that the whole nation becomes stronger because of this effort.”

(LG)