The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

WEATHER officials met on Friday to discuss recently formed tropical systems and any potential impact they may have on the country in the coming days.

Yesterday, the US National Hurricane Centre said it was watching four disturbances. One of them had a 70 percent chance of forming into a tropical depression over the next five days, signalling the fairly quiet hurricane season thus far may be coming to an end.

On Friday, Captain Steven Russell, director of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), which has responsibility for disaster management, said the National Disaster Committee, including representatives from the Bahamas Department of Meteorology met that day to discuss disturbances on the radar and their potential impact.

“The Department of Meteorology gave us a briefing on those tropical waves. One is currently in the southern Caribbean Sea and one is just off the coast of Africa. So, we are monitoring those tropical waves. We’ve appraised all of our agency representatives as to what is out there and to ensure that they are prepared for what may come for the remainder of the hurricane season,” Mr Russell said.

Should the system develop further, Mr Russell said, The Bahamas is only able to withstand that of a category three hurricane.

“Dorian was a category five storm. A category five storm when you look at the scale, produces catastrophic results, storm surges in excess of 20 feet and wind gusts up to 220 miles per hour. We expected catastrophic damage. In the future when we see those types of storms approach our way again, the government has implemented mandatory evacuation. “And we pray that people, once the evacuation orders are announced or issued for certain areas, people would adhere to those warnings and get themselves out of harm’s way.”

He added: “Our structures were probably just built to withstand a category three, according to our building codes. Of course the modifications are now taking place in our building code. But to build a house to withstand a category five storm is going to be expensive.”

Despite the expense, Mr Russell said progress with The Bahamas’ building codes and standards for building designs would mean progress with the resilience of homes and building structures withstanding more hurricanes.

“The building codes are being modified and gradually as we look at building new homes and new structures or reinforcing our homes, we will have to adhere to the building codes. That would further mitigate and make sure our homes and structures are more resilient to deal with these dangerous storms that are coming our way from hereon. And that’s a work in progress,” Mr Russell said.

In October 2021, the Davis administration referred to plans to enhance the country’s building code during the Speech from the Throne, read at the opening of Parliament.

In February, Works and Utilities Minister Alfred Sears said the government would bring a revised building code to Parliament this year and would undertake consultation with all of the relevant stakeholders shortly.

Hurricane season in The Bahamas is June 1 through to November 30 and normally peaks in August and September.