Are we really ready for hurricane season

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Tropical Storm Alberto, the first named storm of the 2006 Hurricane Season has already found this country wanting and we therefore must ask the question - are we really ready for the 2006 season after all?

Although Alberto dropped an abundance of rain on Grand Cayman towards the end of last week and into the weekend, it was no more than we would expect from a tropical storm and certainly a lot less than the amount of rain that we could expect to fall from a larger tropical storm, or as we know from our experience with Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, another hurricane could easily bring lots more.

The first storm of the season saw schools closed on Friday because of flooding, the roads swimming in water causing very dangerous driving conditions and all of the Queen's birthday celebrations and events were cancelled on Saturday.

Throughout the weekend power outages and surges from downed poles caused untold problems for residents in a number of districts.

The Government has invested a significant amount of money in a new department, which has the responsibility for managing all potential emergency situations. We have a new website designed to help people prepare and cope in the advent of any natural or even manmade disaster and we have heard the Administration consistently say the country is well prepared for the hurricane season.

This first period of inclement weather however has raised many questions over that claim.

How ready can we be for a potential category five hurricane when a tropical storm that drops just over eight inches of rain on the Island can cause so many infrastructural disruptions?

It is almost impossible for any country to be fully prepared for any eventuality and some extreme weather conditions or natural disasters are impossible to really prepare for.

However we here, with our accumulative experience, should have least learned how to cope with a tropical storm, without seeing our children sent home from the schools, our roads becoming treacherous, businesses closing down and losing power all over the Island.

Whatever it is that needs to be done, Government needs to do it. The impact of Hurricane Ivan on our economy, even though we managed to recover to a limited extent relatively quickly, was detrimental and we are still feeling the pain.

The increased cost of living and high-inflation is primarily down to the after affects of Ivan.

Under such circumstances we cannot afford to have businesses impacted from floods or a lack of power every time it rains heavily.

Between now and November it is impossible to truly estimate how many times we will see weather such as that brought by Tropical Storm Alberto and if we are to ensure our economy is not further undermined, we must address the flooding and power problems.

This may mean investing in storm drainage systems in the numerous flood prone areas of the Island - especially on the roads.

And for the Islands' power generators, Caribbean Utilities Company, (CUC) the question of underground power cables must be raised again.

As expensive as it may be we cannot afford not to have power here for extended periods.

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