Met Services director: I feel vindicated

Meteorological  Office director Ezekiel Sampson said he feels vindicated in saying that Tropical Storm Elsa should not have been upgraded to a hurricane.

He made the statement even as his utterances have become the subject of an investigation by the Public Services Commission.

Speaking to radio hosts Dale Enoch and Tony Lee on Friday morning, Sampson expressed dissatisfaction that the Barbados Meteorological Service and the National Hurricane Centre in Miami had categorised the storm as a hurricane.

“I don’t agree with it. I don’t agree with it becoming a hurricane. They only have a rainfall of two to three inches, right, the system doesn’t have any moisture, so therefore I’m not seeing that system surviving any further.

"I won’t say they’re wrong, what I’m saying is the system will deteriorate, it will, there is no moisture source for that system. I want to ask why a reconnaissance aircraft wasn’t flown into that storm this morning as promised.”

Sampson said the rainfall would decrease into Saturday, but a projected 25-50 mm of rain would lead to flash flooding and ponding in some areas.

The storm was since downgraded to a tropical storm which is passing through the Caribbean, affecting Jamaica and Cuba.