Ahead of the start of this year’s hurricane season, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has announced that Barbados stands to benefit from an earlier positioning of the Hurricane Hunter aircraft out of the United States at least five days before the approach of a tropical system.
Ms. Mottley was speaking at the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Climate Services’ two-day workshop at the Accra Beach Resort and Spa yesterday.
She told the gathering that early positioning of the aircraft was critical to Barbados’ ability to improve on its preparations and warnings for the storms, which she noted were becoming more and more intense and posed a greater threat to Barbadian lives and livelihoods.
The Prime Minister continued: “We are happy… and we have been agitating for some time that we need to have the positioning of the Hurricane Hunter at an earlier point. We are at 59 degrees and I am told that there has already been a decision on the part of NOAA to be able to pre-position it that will benefit us by the additional day to two days of early warning, depending on the pace and the movement of the system.
“The ideal, I am told, is five days. If what you have done has now brought us to three days, we are within reach of the ideal, but … we are entirely grateful as a region and in particular as a nation being the most easterly country to be able to have that concession from NOAA. And if I did nothing else today, it would be to thank you on behalf of a grateful nation that because of its geographical location has not been able to have the level of accuracy that we would prefer to have had…”
She recapped several instances where successive governments were heavily criticised for a national shut down on the approach of storms or hurricanes. However, Ms. Mottley insisted that one of the benefits of early warning systems was to minimise that type of risk, and to “reduce the loss of expenditure”, and to ensure that “when meteorologists speak that people listen and act”.
The Prime Minister also touched on early warning systems, in relation to droughts and recalled the severe effects of the 2010 drought on Barbados and the region due to an absence of an early warning system.
She added that governments had used the lessons from that event to ensure that between 2016 and 2018, there was an early warning system in place to ensure that governments were better prepared.
Similarly, in 2019, when the country faced the worst drought in its history, Ms. Mottley said the fallout was minimal as farmers and planners were better prepared to deal with that climatic event.
“That is why this meeting is important. That is why we should be proud of the fact that internationally the World Meteorological Organization and other entities believe that the Caribbean is setting global standards in recognising the provision of these climate services, in particular to the agricultural sector, the health sector and the tourism sector. And, today (yesterday) is a validation of the approach that they have,” she underlined.
Acknowledging the lack of resources and skills across the Caribbean, the Prime Minister said partnerships and memoranda of understanding with large entities such as the NOAA, were “absolutely critical”.