Floods more dangerous than hurricanes in TT

During the 45th Session of the Caribbean Meteorological Council (CMC) at the Crowne Plaza Hotel yesterday, Project Officer for Sustainable Development with the Caricom Secretariat, Donna Mc Rae Smith, said there were a number of problems contributing to increased flooding, including the mitigation of such events and the lack of economic means to fight such disasters.

Environmental Minister Pennelope Beckles agreed that TT has been experiencing levels of flooding that have not been seen in many years, and the Government and its agencies hardly seem to have time to address the impacts of one flooding event, before another flooding event occurs. "People are losing their lives, while infrastructure and services have been badly affected," said Beckles.

The tourism industry, said Beckles, could face difficulty in sustaining business viability, as expensive protection measures for coastal property would be needed to combat rising sea levels and to preserve property values. Beckles recalled the devastation caused along the North Coast last October at Maracas Bay, Las Cuevas and La Fillette.

Moving on to the issue of tropical storms and hurricanes, Beckles said the Caribbean has one weakness — the lack of a regional weather radar network — since the demise of the old system that was installed by the Caribbean Meteorological Organisation (CMO) in the late 60s and early 70s.

Beckles said a radar system, the new 13.2 million Euro Regional Weather Radar Project, which is funded by the European Union and implemented by the CMO, is needed for the protection of life and property throughout the region. "The Caribbean has become the victim of major symptoms of global change, which scientists believe are linked to the increase in natural disasters. Beckles said while many people may believe the phenomenon is a figment of the imagination, the emerging reality is that sea levels are rising and sea temperatures are increasing," said Beckles.

According to Beckles, the tropical storm activity for 2005 has been broken with 26 named storms, 13 of which became hurricanes, and seven were major hurricanes. In a normal season, Beckles said there would have been ten to 11 named storms and six hurricanes, including two to three major hurricanes.

In deliberations this year the CMC will discuss the importance of establishing an operational tsunami warning system for the Caribbean, and ways in which the Meteorological Services could play a role in conjunction with seismic and other agencies in considering the feasibility of a tsunami warning system.