(Trinidad Guardian) Director of the Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) Allan Stewart said while clean-up continues, Tobago can declare the situation under control. However, he warned that Tobago could lose control if the team prematurely retreats.
At a Tobago House of Assembly (THA) post-Executive Council media briefing yesterday, Stewart said: “We have reached to a stage where we can say we can climb that very steep hill and we have operation Gulfstream under control.”
He said the team has started flushing trapped hydrocarbon between the rocks and along the shoreline.
“We ought not to be deceived by the eye of the storm. I want to alert the population that until we are clear with knowing the quantities of fuel in the vessel then we are not out of the woods,” he said.
On Tuesday, T&T Salvage tapped the barge to extract fuel for testing from the vessel.
Stewart said TEMA is scaling back on its operations.
“We have still been getting technical advice on certain matters as we scale back the operations but we are very mindful that that vessel still has a content of hydrocarbon we have to pay attention to otherwise we may just be going through the eye of the storm where on the other side we could be hit again,” he explained.
The Division of Health, Wellness and Social Protection has set up a medical post in the Lambeau area to monitor residents closely affected by the fumes of the bunker fuel.
Secretary for the Division Dr Faith B Yisrael said there has been improvement in those who complained of symptoms in the early stages of the disaster.
“We realized some of them would have had comorbidities and were already dealing with other health issues. This may have exacerbated those. But they are doing fine and we will continue monitoring them,” she said.