Tobago relieved as island spared major damage after storm warning

Tobagonians are rejoicing that they were spared the wrath of a tropical storm.

On Monday afternoon, the Met Office issued an orange-level tropical storm warning.

After the passage of the strong tropical wave on Tuesday, the atmosphere remains generally moist and unstable and as a result, an adverse weather alert was in effect until 6pm on Wednesday.

For the most part, Tobagonians buckled down for a battering that never came.

On Tuesday evening, the Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) activated its command centre, comprising all essential services, as well as ordering 17 of the island’s 33 shelters opened.

But by noon on Wednesday, TEMA, on advice from the Met Office announced the situation had changed.

One man, Osbert Bruno, was relieved.

“God continues to smile on Tobago. I’m from a godly home, so I feel it’s just a take that it says it coming here. It just passes in the ocean and leaves. I feel good about it, no major damages. It’s great to know that no one was damaged.”

Andy Patrick expressed similar sentiments.

“I feel good. Tobago is blessed, I felt pretty good when at 11pm I heard of the discontinuation (of the alert) – I feel good.”

Carla Alleyne said: “I went to bed with my Bible. Those winds were scary. I am really happy to know that we were spared, thank God."

Antonio Phillips said: “This was definitely good news. I experienced quite a few in the past and trust me, it’s not a nice experience. So it’s definitely good news.”

Director of the TEMA Allan Stewart agreed.

“From where we are, we feel very happy. We came away quite well.

“We’re doing everything that we can to bring assistance to those persons that would have been disrupted.”

He said for the rest of the week, he expects some additional reports of damage.

“We are not yet clearly out of the woods. Based on the history, based on the experience, going forward: the amount of soil saturation, there were some gusty winds and therefore these can contribute to slope instability and therefore you can have rockslides, you can have landslides still occurring, you can have a home that is poorly constructed or in a state of disrepair that can collapse.”

He reminded that while it is very early in the hurricane season, “It has been a normal thing to see these storms occurring later down in the year, somewhere around the last week in July into August, September.

"Things have changed as we talk about climate change – it is something that we have to make the necessary adjustments, so this is what we are realising now. It is important that we understand that we are living in areas (where) hazards of this nature can impact us."For the hurricane season, he urged, "I want to take this opportunity to appeal to you all to do the necessaries – ensure that you have an emergency plan. Try to keep informed, try to be prepared, consider what we experienced over the past 24 hours to be (a dry) run for us and therefore take these steps to ensure that you make yourself a hard target and protect your well-earned livelihood.”

He commended the teams and individuals who helped prepare for the possible storm, including THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine.

“In the disaster-management mechanism, executive will be a very important element and therefore that was demonstrated. Here today, we would have been very comfortable that the right decisions were made.”