Preliminary phase issued for Hurricane Emily
This evening the Prime Minister and the National Emergency Management Committee, NEMO, declared the preliminary phase of Belize’s Hurricane Plan effective as of six p.m. This means that all those living at the cayes are asked to move to the mainland on Saturday and anyone living along low-lying coastal areas should start preparing and also consider evacuating to higher ground. Belizeans all over the country are advised to take appropriate precautions and be prepared to move if a hurricane watch is declared for other areas of the country tomorrow. News Five’s Jacqueline Woods was at the Met office this afternoon for an update from Belize’s top weatherman.
Carlos Fuller, Chief Meteorologist
?The main system guiding Emily right now is an area of high pressure in the mid levels of the atmosphere, which is ridging from the Atlantic towards the Gulf of Mexico. If this system remains strong, then Emily will keep a more southern track. Whereas if the system, this high pressure were to weaken or move out then it would take amore northern track, so this is really the guiding feature right now. The computer models keep trying to weaken it, but in fact that is not occurring, it keeps strong so its keeping more on this west track of oppose to a north westerly track.?
If Emily continues on its present movement towards the west, she should start affecting the country as early as Sunday morning. Although a gradual turn to the west north-west is expected within the next twenty fours.
Carlos Fuller
?If Emily takes the more southerly track and continues moving at twenty miles per hour indeed we are talking about landfall between six p.m. Sunday to midnight Sunday. So late Sunday will be landfall. However, of course tropical storm force conditions, hurricane force conditions will begin even earlier than that. Maybe from Sunday morning, the outer part of Belize, Lighthouse Reef, Caye Caulker, San Pedro, they will probably start experiencing tropical storm force winds on Sunday morning, if as I said, it keeps this southerly track and it remains that same intensity, then we are talking about a Sunday affect.?
No doubt Belizeans are keeping their fingers cross that the hurricane does take a northerly track. The Met Service has certainly been busy informing concerned citizens and businesses on the hurricane movement.
Carlos Fuller
?We have been getting a lot good phone calls from the media, so we have been able to update the public through the various media yesterday and today. In addition, resort operators, they have tourists in there, they have tourists coming in, they would like to get prepared if that is necessary or even recommend cancellation of some of these bookings. People who have concerns out at sea are also concerned because they are the ones who?ll have to act first, people living out at Lighthouse Reef, Hunting Caye, and so on, they will have to be moving before anybody else. So these are the people who are really concerned at this stage.?
People living in low-lying areas and especially in the cayes are being advised to start moving on Saturday just as a precautionary measure. However, the general public is being advised to start stocking up on supplies.
Carlos Fuller, Chief Meteorologist
?I would certainly encourage them to start getting non-perishable things. Don?t stock up on bread and four and so on that is going to go bad on you if you don?t need it. However, can food, sausage and so on is always good to have and then you can always use it later on, it won?t spoil very quickly. So that is the kind of stuff I would recommend people stock up on now, and in the event that it become necessary tomorrow to then really prepare, then we can consider the plywood and that sort of material that you?ll only use this year.?
Today, the Belize Weather Bureau?s building was fitted with its hurricane shutters. The staff has gone into its emergency mode.
Frank Tench, Weather Forecaster
?It makes me more frustrated rather than nervous since we just have to wait on all the latest information we get before we can make a definite decision. And that decision about what the storm is gonna do, we want to be able to inform the public in a proper and timely manner about what to do. Since it?s a fast moving storm, we also need to get this information out rather quickly to the public since we?re pretty close to a weekend and people would need to know as early as the end of today what the storm is doing so that they can either start to make plans this evening or as latest as tomorrow morning. So that for me is the biggest concern with this storm.?
Ann Gordon, Meteorologist
?We have an able staff, Mr. Tench and I are working as a team together and he has a lot of experience also in this field, so I?m not really concerned, because we work together as a team. And we have one purpose and one focus, to give a timely forecast, reliable, so that it could reduce the lost of lives and property in the event of a hurricane.?
Jacqueline Woods for News Five.
As of six o’clock Emily had re-strengthened to a category three hurricane with winds of one hundred and fifteen miles per hour. She was moving west-northwest at eighteen miles per hour and was located three hundred and five miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. News Five will be airing Tropical Weather Updates every hour on the hour until the danger has passed. At least one event, the Antique and New Car show, has been postponed until the end of the month as a precaution.
