By: Kimberly Ramkhalawan
August 2, 2022
What was supposed to be a tropical wave passing through the islands, turned into a freak storm packing Category one hurricane force winds, affecting Grenada and
St.Vincent and the Grenadines Saturday into Sunday morning.
Several residents of the islands were left without their roofs, trees uprooted and electricity power lines pulled down, leaving over 2000 of the island’s residents without power supply for most of Sunday.
The weather system’s strong front was noticed one hour prior to the event, when
Grenada’s National Disaster Management Agency, NaDMA put out an alert to its residents of the gusts associated with the weather system.
In a release, forecaster Fimber Frank described the events which unfolded indicated as a result of ‘rapid cloud development to the immediate east of Grenada in association with a Tropical Wave’ which led to the early Sunday morning weather. Frank said the mass of clouds (convection) continued to develop as it moved overhead. Between 2 am– 6am, the Met office recorded a peak wind gust of 80.6 mph; gust which qualified as conditions of a category 1 hurricane. Within that time period, a gust of 63.3 mph was also recorded at Grantley Adams Airport,
Barbados, taken note by the Barbados Meteorological Service. Frank went on to explain that the “unfamiliar weather events which unfolded were extremely difficult to predict and as a result no advisories were issued before”. The forecast originally given for the night stated “partly cloudy with occasional light to moderate showers and a low chance of thunderstorms. Improvements are expected after midnight”.
Responding to the events, Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, who is just over a month since taking office, stated “assessments on the extent of the damages continue, however, initial surveys of this exceptional weather event reinforce how vitally important it is that we strengthen our climate resilience mechanisms. Our hearts go out to everyone who has suffered losses as a result of this adverse weather”. He noted that emergency teams were dispatched with those affected, providing tarpaulins, items for temporarily relief and short-term protection”.
As for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, reports from its National Emergency
Organization, NEMO, say one house in Bequia collapsed while five other homes
south of the island received damages, with other homes damaged in Belmont, Kingstown Park, Top Questelles and Trigger Ridge. The SVG Meteorological
Services reported wind gusts up to 33mph at the Argyle International Airport, AIA, and reported to have been stronger at hilly and mountainous regions.
SVG Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves in providing an update on Sunday via national broadcast on state radio, said “We’ve had some damage this morning. The good news is the damage is not as extensive and the further good news is that it is the tail end of the tropical wave which affected more to the south”. He added that government was assisting persons whose homes were damaged, with preliminary shelter for affected residents provided at Bequia S.D.A. Primary School.
Northerly parts of Trinidad and Tobago were also affected, and while alerts were put out from as early as Friday in anticipation of the bad weather and strong winds, while on Sunday mostly fallen trees and flash flooding was reported.
On June 17 2021, Barbados experienced a similar situation where a freakstorm attributed to a mesocyclone that led to several houses sustaining damages to their roofs, while flash flooding, and downed electrical wires resulted in most of the nation doing without power.
The incident is said to have reinforced the impact of climate change on the region, with leaders calling for more to be done to ensure their resilience against such weather systems.
At the recent CARICOM Regular Meeting of Heads of Government, climate changed headlined the agenda, with leaders stating the impact and having to respond to such catastrophic events putting a dent on their budgetary allocations annually.
So far there have been four named storms for the 2022 hurricane season with it carded to come to an end by November 30th.