Samuda urges preparation, not panic, as Jamaica braces for Tropical Storm Melissa
Toriann Ellis / Our Today
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In light of Jamaica being placed under a tropical storm watch, Minister for Water, Environment and Climate Change Matthew Samuda has outlined that it’s not time to panic, but certainly time to prepare.
“I want to assure citizens listening and members here that the Ministry of Water, Environment and Climate Change, through the Met Service, is coordinating very closely with the National Response Team and Mr Desmond McKenzie’s team, and of course, feeding through the National Disaster Management Council through the prime minister,” Samuda said.
This, he emphasised, will require an all-government response, but he is assuring citizens that they will get timely updates from the Met Service. “They will benefit from our bolstered capacity. We’re now using our own Doppler radar, whereas before we had to depend almost solely on external sources and external support, and we are very clear that we have had to mobilise our other agencies to ensure that they provide particular support through their early warning systems.”
Speaking at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) special press briefing on preparation for Tropical Storm Melissa on Wednesday, Samuda said that the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) is on guard, and the Water Resources Authority, which monitors the riverbeds to ensure that they feed information through the appropriate mechanisms.
“I want to alert you to one other step that we have taken. We have, through the National Water Commission, engaged all of our emergency protocols. We’re already monitoring our situations related to our hospitals and our infirmaries to make sure that they are served right throughout any storm if it does indeed hit us, and certainly in the immediate aftermath,” Samuda continued while noting that the ministry is fully engaged and prepared to provide information to society and play its role in the response to the storm.
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