National Hurricane Center Storm Surge Specialist Cody Fritz speaks at a a Department of Meteorology workshop focused on creating better forecasting for storm surge so the public can be better informed on what to expect and whether there is a need to evacuate or not. Photo: Austin Fernander
By JADE RUSSELL
Tribune Staff Reporter
jrussell@tribunemedia.net
ACTING Director of Meteorology Jeffrey Simmons said officials are working to improve storm surge forecasting.
His department started a regional storm surge workshop yesterday with 20 people from 10 countries, including meteorologists, oceanographers, geographic information systems specialists (GIS) and other experts.
“The idea is to be able to create better forecasting when it comes to storm surge,” Mr Simmons said, “so that we can have our residents from around the region better prepared. We can say to them listen: this area is going to have inundation at a certain level. It also assists with the evacuation part of it.”
“In The Bahamas, we really are a coastal region and just about all of our residents live around the coasts. It’s important that people know what’s going on.”
Mr Simmons said experts want to develop a storm surge atlas to help predict upcoming storms.
For her part, GIS specialist Suzanne Russell–Dorsett said the organisation plans to use the data from the workshop to help people more efficiently.
“Hopefully, we’re able to see from the data that’s going to be presented to The Bahamas, more areas of vulnerability so that we know how to plan effectively for evacuations and mitigations for property, government critical assets,” she said. “We are hoping from this workshop to learn how we can plan better in the preparedness stage of disaster management.”
She also advised the public to start preparing for hurricane season which runs from June 1 through November 30.
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