Abrahams: Stay indoors until the all clear is given

Residents are being urged to stay indoors as Hurricane Beryl continues to impact the island.

“Do not go anywhere until the all clear is given,” Minister of Home Affairs and Information Wilfred Abrahams appealed this morning.

“We are midway in the cycle; the worst of it is past. However, there is still a fair amount of it to come. The storm conditions are expected to last for another couple of hours…. I have been seeing the comments on social media and a lot of people can’t wait to get up and go and see what has been going on. Please do not leave your homes until the all clear is given,” he stressed.

“I know in the day of social media, everybody wants to be first to get something out. You want to be the first to have a video, you want to be the first to show something, you want to be first to show house damage; don’t do that in a way that might cost you your life or even more. You may wish to take a risk with your life, but if something were to happen to you, a first responder or response teams would have to be deployed to try to assist you and you may end up putting their lives in danger.  So, you’re going to hear this over and over because this is critical for everybody to hear: Do not go anywhere until the all clear is given . . . .”

Abrahams disclosed that there were some downed power lines and some residents were without electricity. However, the full extent of the damage caused by Beryl is not yet known.

“Once we are satisfied that it’s safe to do so, our drone team is going to be deployed and we are going to traverse the roads of Barbados to identify trees that may have fallen, houses that might have been damaged and downed lines, at which point crews are going to be dispatched to try to clear before the all clear is given for persons,” he said.

“You may see first responders or emergency personnel on the road before the all clear is given, but that does not mean that you have a licence to go out until the all clear is issued from the NEOC [National Emergency Operations Centre]. You are supposed to remain in your house. It’s not because we’re trying to exercise power over you; this is because we’re trying to make sure that nobody gets injured unnecessarily and for foolishness.”

Abrahams said it appeared that Barbados had “dodged a bullet — or we are in the process of dodging a bullet”, but pointed out that storm-force winds were still affecting the island and residents therefore needed to remain safe.

“There is still more of this system to come, so stay in place and be responsible. Please keep yourselves safe. We have had no reports so far of injury to persons; I would like to keep it so. I would like that the passage of this storm is marked by no injury to anybody,” the home affairs minister added.