Trinidad & Tobago in path­way if Tropical Storm Kirk be­comes stronger

This photo released by the National Hurricane Centre shows the projected pathway of Tropical Storm Kirk should it gain momentum and become stronger over the next couple days. T&T is in the danger zone should that occur.
This photo released by the National Hurricane Centre shows the projected pathway of Tropical Storm Kirk should it gain momentum and become stronger over the next couple days. T&T is in the danger zone should that occur.

(TRINIDAD GUARDIAN) Pre­pare—and pray.

That’s the word from Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein and munci­pal au­thor­i­ties yes­ter­day as Trop­i­cal Storm Kirk swept across the At­lantic, with T&T and neigh­bour­ing Wind­ward is­lands with­in the path of its ex­tend­ed cone—so far.

The US Na­tion­al Hur­ri­cane Cen­tre (NHC) dubbed the storm Kirk af­ter it de­vel­oped last Sat­ur­day at the re­cent peak of the 2018 hur­ri­cane sea­son.

Rural Development and Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein

Kirk, which de­vel­oped at a very souther­ly lat­i­tude, was mov­ing west of Cabo Verde is­land pack­ing winds of 40 miles (65 km) per hour.

NHC charts most of yes­ter­day showed Kirk’s ear­ly for­ma­tion in lat­i­tude line with T&T. Its pro­ject­ed route showed it con­tin­u­ing with a small shift north­ward as it nears T&T – but with T&T and the most souther­ly Caribbean is­lands still in the path of its ex­tend­ed cone.

NHC’s 5 pm bul­letin yes­ter­day es­ti­mat­ed T&T and the Wind­wards may get winds by Thurs­day morn­ing. Oth­er for­cast­ers hope it will run in­to wind shear and dis­in­te­grate.

Yes­ter­day, T&T Me­tero­log­i­cal Ser­vices’ se­nior du­ty of­fi­cer said the de­part­ment had been get­ting calls all day from wor­ried peo­ple. He not­ed the storm had formed at a very low souther­ly lat­i­tude like Brett (2017) and Isidore (1990)

“When it forms so far south we do have to be watch­ful. Brett formed at a low­er south lev­el than Kirk and that passed south of T&T. Isidore lost steam in the At­lantic,” the du­ty of­fi­cer said.

He said Kirk, up to 6 pm yes­ter­day, was a “min­i­mal” storm.

“We ex­pect it’ll in­ten­si­fy over the next two days but weak­en as it ap­proach­es the Wind­ward chain. When it reach­es about 1200-1500 km east of T&T it may take a more west­north west­er­ly track to the north­ern Wind­wards; prob­a­bly around Tues­day or Wednes­day.”

He said T&T wasn’t un­der a trop­i­cal storm watch/warn­ing, “but we’re mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion.”

The Wind­wards com­prise Do­mini­ca, Mar­tinique, St Lu­cia, St Vin­cent and the grenadines, Grena­da and T& .

Oth­er is­lands are al­so mon­i­tor­ing the storm close­ly.

Ac­cuWeath­er ex­pert se­nior me­te­o­rol­o­gist Dan Kot­t­lows­ki, in St Lu­cia me­dia, said Kirk could threat­en parts of the Wind­wards by Thurs­day or Fri­day “with strong per­haps dam­ag­ing winds and heavy rain­fall.”

Ac­tion plan 100 hours be­fore storm

Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein said he was in­formed of Trop­i­cal Storm Kirk’s de­vel­op­ment by 9 pm on Sat­ur­day.

He said the Min­istry and 14 mu­nic­i­pal cor­po­ra­tions are close­ly mon­i­tor­ing Kirk’s path, since T&T cur­rent­ly falls with­in the storm’s fore­cast­ed cone. Ho­sein said the sit­u­a­tion prompt­ed cor­po­ra­tions’ Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Units (DMUs) to be­gin prepa­ra­tions in the event Kirk reach­es lo­cal shores lat­er this week.

“I saw pic­tures of the storm’s path. You can’t take any­thing light­ly. We’re mon­i­tor­ing it but peo­ple should take all nec­es­sary pre­cau­tion,” Ho­sein said.

“You can’t just say ‘God is Tri­ni’ and sit back. It’s all about be­ing pre­pared. We may not be af­fect­ed by this storm but we must do what we can to safe­guard loved ones and homes. You know I be­lieve in prayer, so what­ev­er re­li­gion, seek­ing God’s help to avert any dis­as­ter is al­so good.”

He added: “I pray it los­es steam or veers away from the is­land chain and we’re not af­fect­ed. But the DMU’s and min­istry are get­ting or­gan­ised just in case.”

Ho­sein’s min­istry yes­ter­day is­sued cor­po­ra­tions with a Time Phase Plan de­tail­ing steps to be tak­en from 100 hours pri­or to the time a storm or hur­ri­cane makes land­fall. It cov­ers ac­tion, in­clud­ing emer­gency shel­ter as­sis­tance and oth­er re­lief to the post-storm pe­ri­od.

The min­istry en­cour­aged the pub­lic to take note of Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Hot­lines for emer­gency use, to keep mon­i­tor­ing the news to be in­formed of fur­ther de­vel­op­ments and to put to­geth­er emer­gency kits with re­serves of wa­ter and oth­er ne­ces­si­ties in case they’re need­ed. The min­istry al­so stressed the pub­lic should mon­i­tor of­fi­cial weath­er re­ports in com­ing days.

RE­GION­AL COR­PO­RA­TION HOT­LINES

Diego Mar­tin Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tio – 800-DM­RC (3672)

San Juan/Laven­tille Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – 800-SLRC (7572)

Ari­ma Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion – 800-2ABC (2222)

Tu­na­puna/Pi­ar­co Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – 800-TPRC (8272)

Port-of-Spain City Cor­po­ra­tion – 800-PSCC (7722)

San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – 800-SGRC (7472)

Ch­agua­nas Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion – 800-DCBC (3222)

Cou­va/Tabaquite/Tal­paro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – 800-CTTC (2882)

Ma­yaro/Rio Claro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – 800-4MRC (4672)

Princes Town Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – 800-PTRC (7872)

Point Fortin Bor­ough Cor­po­ra­tion – 800-PF­BC (7322)

San Fer­nan­do City Cor­po­ra­tion – 800-SC­DU (7238)

Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – 800-PDRC (7372)

Siparia Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion – 800-4SRC (4772)