 Welcome back to Stormwatch. We really apologize for the breaking continuity and we're currently experiencing intermittent power cuts. But we want to assure you that our technicians are working assiduously to remedy the situation. Before we left off, we did talk about the presentation by the Ministry of Tourism at the First Strike and so we want to go back to this presentation. At some point in the evening, we will be having the Director of Med Services, Mr. Andres Roye, live on the line and he's going to give us an update. So before we do that... Good morning, Mr. Prime Minister, members of the Head Table, Ministers of Government and attendees. My name is Nurani Aziz of the St. Lucia Hospitality and Tourism Association. I wish to inform you that our Tourism Disaster Management Response Committee was activated since the 1st of June and since then we have had seamless exchanges and communications with key agencies, in particular our line ministry, the Ministry of Tourism. To date, we have captured occupancy data on Ireland as of yesterday and that information has been shared with the relevant authorities. We, as I indicated, continue to have open lines of communication with representatives of SLASMA, Ministry of Tourism, NEMO, et cetera. Last month we concluded on a HAM radio training for operators within the industry. So we expect that we've ramped up on those skill sets and we've also reconfirmed our list of satellite phones available to members within our association. The occupancy levels by our count, as it relates to the feedback provided by our members, stand at approximately 60% and this accounts for approximately 4,000 visitors on Ireland. We cannot account, however, for the occupancy levels among the sharing economy operators, that is your traditional Airbnb. To date, as I indicated, we continue to work with our members and just this morning issued another advisory that not only are they to conclude on the matters related to their preparation but also matters which are of interest to staff members and scheduling and manning to ensure that their needs are of equal priority, as is the accommodation of our guests during this time. We expect, after the discussions today, to set up another high-level committee at which exchanges will be had among the most senior persons of the relevant agencies that we are in touch with. That includes our line ministry, the Ministry of Tourism and that concludes my presentation. Any questions? Thank you. We, as our colleagues from the SLTA, we activated our disaster management plan yesterday We have since communicated to our audiences that the airport has been closed. We did so yesterday. We have also communicated to all through our social platforms that should anyone be in any areas, they should communicate to us directly so that we can account of where the accommodations are, where they are situated. We also have some members of the media who are on island as we speak, so we have made accommodations to move them in other presumably safer areas so we can account for them should any issues face them. So, essential minister, so we can proceed to welcome our visitors tomorrow. Thank you very much. Thank you again for staying with the broadcast. This is Stormwatch. I am Rianne Isidore and I am joined by Jolita Peter. We will stay with you. Brett, we do have the lines open and at this time, the director of St. Lucia Med Services is with us via telephone, Mr. Andre Joye. He will now provide us a new St. Lucia with the latest weather forecast as it relates to tropical storm. Brett, Mr. Joye, can you hear me? Are you with us? Yes. Good evening. Mr. Joye. So, we had the 6 p.m. weather forecast. Brett, at that time, sustained winds up to 70 miles per hour. Has the situation changed since then? Yes, it has somewhat the direction of the tropical storm that has actually changed. It's now passing to the south of St. Lucia and into its indentsen. South heading to the indentsen, Mr. Joye, just to put into perspective for the viewing audience, does that mean the mass, cloud mass will not hover over St. Lucia? Give us a sense as to how much Brett will hover over the island on its route. Most of the front part of the depression has passed. There was some, what you call, sharing which prevented the system from actually causing any rainfall. But to the back, the end of the depression, this is where most of the convection and the strong winds are. This is expected to pass over in the next couple of hours. Is it too early to determine whether or not Brett has weakened or strengthened? Well, it has weakened to some extent. But, like I said, the hardest part, the greater convection is to the back of the depression, which is yet to come. So, I mean, it's 8.45, quarter to 9 p.m. now. What timelines can we anticipate before the brunt of Brett? Initially, we said that the center would have passed by 10 p.m. and it seems that was a good focus. We are sticking with that 10 p.m. and expecting stronger winds and going to be rainfall after 10 p.m. Considering the forecast in terms of the rainfall, which locations, and of course, sticking into account its current trajectory moving or dipping further south, which communities do you anticipate to be worst affected by Brett in its current state? You said weaker, but some strong winds and some rainfall is still expected. So, which locations throughout the country might expect the worst of Brett? Okay, well, we know the traditional sort of pro derriere. I don't think I should mention it. It's a good notion being in the middle of the hurricane belt. It's always useful to sort of remind the notions of the... Yes, well, along any riverbank, once you have houses close to the rivers, those are prone to flooding. Any settlement that is close to the foot of any mountain range or hills, because the rainfall would accumulate above them and then come down in a rush, so they would be susceptible to flooding. Yeah, so that's why we would normally say persons in flood prone and low-lying areas. We know the country is based on low-explored, low-decorated areas. Okay, Mr. Jirai, saying that the Brett has changed direction in passing many through the south. As we speak, any reports of heavy rains in the south? Any, could be. Any report of any rains? Is it raining in the south at present? Yes, it is raining in the south. And we expected more rainfall later. Up to six to eight inches, is this still going to hold? Do you anticipate over the course of this evening? It will be safe to keep that figure, because the way the prediction was that from Thursday into Friday, the accumulated rainfall over those two days would have been three to six inches. And that's accumulated rainfall from Brett's associated. And just so that the St. Lucian view, St. Lucian's are clear and not to misinterpret or misunderstand the apparent weakening of Brett. This, and you can correct me here, Mr. Jirai, Brett's weakening state and southerly trajectory does not mean that we are in the all clear, right? No, definitely. Persons who have been outside would say that, you know, nothing really transpired in just a little bit of wind. But we are anticipating that today, later tonight, we would get conditions that are a lot more serious. And at present, we are still under a tropical storm warning. Yes, we are. And just early before you came on the call, Julita and I were just discussing the variances between a warning and a watch. And also the fact that Brett is a St. Lucia, or at least at 6 p.m. wasn't a hurricane watch. So our unit position, go ahead and explain to us those differences. We're under a hurricane watch, but at the same time, we're under a tropical storm warning. Yes. The reason for the hurricane watch is due to an aircraft called the Hurricane Hunter, which goes into the aircraft and gets the actual reading of the winds and the wind following the pressure. So they notice that there are areas in the storm where you get strong winds that are up to a hurricane force. So as a precautionary measure, we went for a hurricane watch. That means that we could expect, you know, certain gusts that could go up to that level, 73 miles per hour and above. So it's a precautionary measure, but really and truly is the hurricane, sorry, the tropical storm warning that takes precedence. And before we let you go, Mr. Joye, director, there is another system trailing Brett. What can you tell us about the forecast in relation to this newly developing system and should we, in the Wynwood Islands and in St. Lucia specifically, be concerned about this other system? Well, any system that's in the Atlantic is an area for concern. This system has developed into tropical depression number four. And the initial forecast is for it to move to the north so it will pass above the island chain. But I would like to point out that the initial models for Brett also showed that it's better to pass now for the island. So it is always good to follow the weather reports and see how the system's developed. But for now, the forecast is that the depression number four, if it develops, will move north of the island chain. Well, Mr. Joye, I want to thank you for this timely update. Viewers can take away some new developments as it relates to tropical storms, Brett's trajectory. It's dipped southerly and appears to have weakened. However, the brunt of Brett, to so put it, is still expected to affect parts of the island in the coming hours around the 10 p.m. region. The downpours, according to you just now, Mr. Joye, are expected to peak at up to eight inches in certain areas. That's a lot of them. So by no means should we interpret this weakening and change in direction as a moment to... Yes, really kind of let our guards down. Yes. I agree with your summary. All right. Yes. Thank you. So let's say thank you to Mr. Joye. Have a good night and stay safe. And I'm sure before the night is over, we will be hanging from you again. Hopefully, yeah, we hope so. Sure. Thank you. So at this point, we will go back to another presentation at the pre-strike, the MAP meeting. Let us go to tourism again. Last week, we have been putting out press releases to our sector, reminding them that we are in the hurricane season and that they should take the necessary steps to ensure that they safeguard their business, ensure that the necessaries are in when it comes to safeguarding their visitors, et cetera. And we have, as indicated by Mr. Nurani Aziz, we have been in communication with our key tourism stakeholders keeping them abreast as the advisories come in from NEMO and as well as the Met Office. And we've also been posting on our Facebook page little tidbits in terms of what you should do in the event of storm pre and after. Thank you. Well, I was trying to tell the Prime Minister to update him so he can inform you because I was updating him this morning at the meeting with the chairperson of the Carnival Planning Management Committee. As you know, we'll be having semifinals Friday, Saturday, Sunday, groovy, so-called power and have so-finals on Sunday. Now, it's really difficult for us now. So Friday show has definitely been postponed. We've not yet postponed Saturday, you know, Sunday, still hoping for the best. And we've not been able to reschedule because I'm told that the Met Office is saying that there's another system right behind and they're not sure what's going to happen. And we are hoping that all goes well and that life can return to normal next week. But let's just hope. I'm not sure what the latest would be, but it would be a major disruption for us because as you know, every night from now until the middle of July has something and visitors are starting to come in, you know, for those events from this weekend as we build up to Queen's show next week Friday and the big events. So there will be some disruptions. I think that the team is meeting now trying to see what they can do in terms of changing around the schedule if anything should happen. So we will be in touch with the police as well. This weekend we're supposed to have Souffre Carnival, Denry Carnival on the weekend. They wanted to have juve, so I think that's a perfect excuse for them not to have juve this weekend. But all the programs and everything will have to change. And hopefully it all goes well tonight, tomorrow. Life can return to normal as soon as possible. But this is going to be the highest arrival period for Saint Lucia, early July, in terms of visitor arrivals to the country. This is the first, the two weeks when we get the most people coming to Saint Lucia. So you can understand how critical it is for us to respond and get life back to normal because the Prime Minister will tell you is when he smiles the most. When he sees the numbers for early July. So it's really, really important that we get things back under control as soon as possible. Thank you, PM. Just a reminder, my name is Rihani Isidore. This is Stormwatch. For those just joining us, you would have just listened to stakeholders from the Ministry of Tourism, the Minister of Tourism just provided his ministry's response at a pre-strike meeting convened earlier. That was ahead of Tropical Storm Brett's impact over Saint Lucia. Over the course of tonight, we will revisit the pre-strike meeting today to get a sense of the level of preparedness from the various stakeholders throughout the public and private sectors. But going back to now, a reminder, we are at the Nemo Secretariat in Bezier Castries where the NEOC, the National Emergency Operations Center, is activated. The NEOC, in short, is directed by Mr. Lucia Slick, very familiar to disaster preparedness, disaster management in Saint Lucia. And Mr. Lick and his team are here to continue leading the coordinating, the responses in relation to Tropical Storm Brett. Thank you for joining us Mr. Lick. Thank you for being here. How busy has it been over the last couple of hours? Not too busy. We have some calls coming in from various portions of the island where we expect persons to heed all what has been said now. The calm before the storm is true in saying that Brett has dipped a bit, but we're not in the clairs as yet. But a few reports have been coming in. The monotous shelters have been opened and persons have been housed in these shelters as we speak presently. And Saint Lucia, there are communities, locations, geographic locations that are just prone and just vulnerable whenever there are weather events moving over the island. Mr. Lick, what are some of those locations and have you received any information in terms of the stress or any need for the NAOC to deploy resources to those locations? The areas we are prone to flooding with these types of disasters, Dennery, Ancelere Canaries, Mac-Bexon area. There was a rescue in Dennery of a 98-year-old female because of rising sea waters. The Dennery fire service was able to handle that with assistance from the Dennery Disaster Committee and direction of Mr. Osbert Regis. That is happening right now. There's a shelter. We just got information that has been opened in Viewfort. There's another shelter open where we have four occupants, four male occupants in that shelter. So, a few shelters are open because persons' homes are compromised or not able to or they're not comfortable to withstand what Brett may bring in and that level of relief is there for them at this point. And just to sort of get a better understanding of the emergency shelters, are these buildings opened before or after or even during the passage of an extreme weather event? During the passage of an extreme weather event, no shelter will be opened then. Neither will you get responses from police, fire, or emergency personnel in that regard. Some shelters providing information as given in advance will be open prior to impact. In most cases, we have open shelters or shelters have been opened after impact because in some instances, persons' households are able to withstand whatever is being brought forward. But you must take into consideration that for shelters to be opened, there must be a management team in place. It's not a matter of opening the plant or the shelter and allow the citizenry to occupy at their will and fancy. There will be movement or furniture or items in the particular shelters that are being used because in what purpose they built for that purpose, they are dual usage. And the information must be given in advance. Somebody has to come in to open to take account of what it is, to move items and ensure that whoever occupies is comfortable enough until they all are given and able to return back to a level of normalcy or to their homes. And according to you just now, or at least two locations shelters have been activated to accommodate individuals whose domiciles, dwellings, cannot sustain, cannot withstand breads. I can say we have Beanfield Shelter, Beanfield Secondary School in Viewfort. Eight persons are housed from Bruceville. And we have the 98-year-old female who has been housed. We have six other persons in another shelter. So we have shelters open. It's not a matter that shelters remain closed and persons don't have access. The information is given in a timely manner so you can get a shelter manager to come and assist and get it done. It's a little process because when things get back to normal, the shelters which will dual use have to go back to its original use. And you want to ensure that it is left almost in the Christine condition it was found before. The team you lead here at the NAOC, just give the audience a sense of who is your team here. We have the Commissioner of Police, the Chief Fire Officer, Dr. Joseph from the Medical Ministry of Health. We have the Chair of the Transportation Committee. We have Colonel Hyace with the cadets. We have some other Nemo volunteers. We have a cross-section of persons assisting in that regard. It's not a one-person operation. As the Director of Nemo has other functions to do, what we have done is to enable the Director to carry on these functions while we have our radio operators getting information, contacting the other entities, documenting the information and allowing the smooth transition of what it is where relief supplies are required, assistance for whatever it is. We get reports of fallen trees where we could inform infrastructure, where there are power outages in particular areas or damaged lines. If they can't, we contact you, select on their behalf. So we more or less coordinate an agency. And we also report to the international and regional entities who are seeking resources if the need comes forward for us. So it's an open conversation we have where it pertains to that form of assistance granted to the citizenry. And kudos to you and the teams on the ground and even the teams at the Activator Shelter so far. I mean, they have a task of sort of ensuring the safety of these individuals who occupy these shelters right now and over the course of the evening. That rescue effort in Denry Village. In Denry South there. Timely, I would imagine. And we trust that all is in place to ensure the safety of the senior down there. But would you, I mean, how busy, I mean, has it been as busy as you would have anticipated at this point in time? No, because of the, because Brett has dipped and what the scenarios we went through prior to Brett dipping has changed what has happened. It's moved to the south of the island so it's between St Lucia and St Vincent as compared to the projected path which showed the northern tip of the island being affected. That is good news. But information you're getting that the northern quadrant of the system is where you have all the water and everything else you don't want. Which is what we are going to be getting soon. So we have braced for that and we hope that the residents remain at home and don't go trying to be a disaster tourist or to be the first to post it because at some point in time emergency services are not going to go out. We're not going to go out in any way or cause any person to go out from a disaster assistance soon from now. So we're going to hunker in and ride it through. Eventually the all-clear will be issued whether by the Prime Minister or the Nemo when that all-clear is eventually issued to the public, what should they expect? Who goes out immediately? Who goes out first? Is there some sort of process? Yes, before the all-clear is given. You have emergency services and the engine will be multifaceted. As far as the reports are received the various agencies will go out and ensure the roads are cleared and as was said in the pre-strike meeting with Lucille, I can ensure that no lines are down or if lines are down that has been taken care of because at the time factor we're working with to accommodate slasper and reopen of the airports. So you want to ensure that all your ducks are lying in a row that when the all-clear is given all persons can traverse as per normal. I don't expect some markets to not be open depending on that time frame or how much they'll be. So you'll find other persons will be driving to see what has happened where you had information. So even if the all-clear is given there's no need to rush out. We want to allow the emergency response teams some time to do some reconnaissance to assess potential areas where there may be some potential damage. Clear that out. Let's give them a chance to clear debris, clear roadways depending on the severity and then we can begin the general public can begin to Persons will be eager to go out and see what it is unless you're going to see family or anything of that nature. What are you doing on the roads? And you don't want to restrict anybody in any way at all. But there will be movement of emergency vehicles and vehicles which have been procured for this event. Remember there's another system coming behind. We're not sure of its exact trajectory. We're not telling persons to stay but everything will be closed. So enjoy the time at home, rest with family do some more clearance of drains if you have anything to do to clear around the place. But stay put until such time because the all-clear will be given saying that persons can move around freely but where are you going to? We just want persons to work along with us in regard to ensure that we're able to meet the needs of the other persons who may be feeling the brunt of it after the fact because not all reports come in in a timely manner. They may be delays before the information reaches the EOC for which we can send the Dana teams out to get the information, do the assessment and then come back in and see how we can render assistance. Mr. Lucius Lake, Lieutenant Colonel, Director of the NEOC. He has a long night ahead of him. Hopefully we don't. But we will be on hand to provide you with the updates as they unfold. I want to thank you for your time and if needs be, of course Mr. Lucius Lake will be on hand to provide. Back to the NEMAC Pre-Strike meeting earlier today various stakeholders as we indicated earlier would have given reports to the Prime Minister and the NEMAC head as to their state of readiness housing and storm watch in a few. We will be passed on to NEMO with their contact information to ensure that the facilities HRDC centers, community centers within our previews keys are handed over smoothly although disaster committees can work smoothly outside of emergency councils if needs be we have a meeting at 12.30 scheduled for all our councils so we have this and that collaboration between our disaster councils and disaster councils as it relates to our technical staff they remain ready and available NEMO in the aftermath if something does happen to do an assessment of the housing stock also our research unit thank you much. No doubt such as this we have some serious implications on health and health system and we do medical office of health doctor on the level of preparedness as far as the ministry of health is concerned and he was also accompanied by the CEO of the Millennium Heights Medical Complex doctor Dexter James and so we are going to bring you those two gentlemen right now to talk the ministry of health stands ready to respond to the impending storm or hurricane, whichever one it is I will allow our disaster team comprising Dr. Joseph as well as the heads of the two hospitals the CEOs to begin the presentation thank you good morning all I acknowledge the head table at this time as indicated the ministry of health is ready to respond to whether we have a storm or a hurricane thanks thank you and we looked at the various facilities within the primary care setting and the hospital I will give you a summary of the primary care and allow the heads of the two hospitals to give you a summary of their level of preparedness we have updated our national plans as well as at the community levels we have in particularly looked at ensuring we have continued delivery of services within primary care and as such the contingency plan was put in place to ensure that the gross lay poly clinic and the denry hospital that operates from 8 until midnight will be operational for 24 hours starting today now that we will have some closure of the smaller facilities which will be in line with closure of business places and the public sector a mechanism was put in place to ensure that the persons closer to these facilities are going to be the one to deliver the services noting that some of these facilities can be cut off from the rest of the islands and to ensure that we can continue delivering we have looked at our general supplies first for medical supplies and pharmaceutical and our central procurement has already activated and dispensing medication to key health facilities as well as ensuring patients have an adequate supply of medication to weather the storm beyond 72 hours we have looked at the food supply to ensure that the wellness centers as well as the staff at those facilities will have enough food to last should we be impacted the fuel for these facilities the generators they were continuously serviced and they have been most of them complete the refueling process with to the entry and ancillary fueling to be completed today we have looked at our water supplies and the facilities they do have adequate water supply to ensure that these key health facilities and even the other primary care facilities have adequate supply of water and of course we do have contingency plan with WASCO to ensure that we can be resupplied and of course the environmental health division would have put mechanism in place to ensure that if there is any interruption of water they have some level of treatment to allow for the utilization of such as indicated we have made accommodation for the staff and structurally we have looked at the facilities in terms of cutting off trees, clearing off drains those have been more or less complete and their communication at the various health facilities in particular GIPC Souffre and Souffre hospital along with Denry where they have the two way communication that will allow them to communicate with NEMO as indicated we looked at our human resource I want to point out how much we have been working in collaboration with the rest of the team as there has been the activation of the plans for the homeless where they will be and what have been taken into the sports complex and the Ministry of Health would have activated its team to be responsive physicians and nurses and they should be at the facility as we speak as we have had discussion this morning. To note Paho committed to supporting the Ministry of Health in the event we have been in dialogue and they are well aligned to provide some support. One thing I would like to note I do acknowledge the presentation by infrastructure where we have a facility which is Souffre hospital at that river behind the hospital what can happen if we do not have the adequate clearance so this is something that we should look into. At this point just to note that the rest of the departments within the Ministry of Health that is environmental, nutrition epidemiology and all the other departments are ready to provide their role should we have a storm and at this time I will hand over to the Millennium Heights Medical Complex to provide us with a summary of their level of preparedness contributed to the overall Ministry of Health and Wellness preparedness thank you. Doug before you go. You spoke about the generators that is extremely important. We do know that they were smarting several of our wellness facilities about 14 of them and these were provided with generators and we have ensured that these generators are functional and fuel not only for the main facilities such as Dennery, Grosley and Souffre but the smaller facilities that have been smarted those generators are up and running actually while we do note that there are three key facilities that will provide support for 24 hours to support the hospitals there are some smaller facilities that we aim at depending on the level of impact that we can utilize to provide support Don't forget the one in Chippewa Yes As mentioned as mentioned earlier You said it didn't fill it yet Pardon? You said the one that was not filled as yet No, we have started even before the first NIMAC meeting to ensure that our facilities, the generators and everything were up to speed and as such the process continues and this morning we just have two more to be completed and by lunch by this afternoon that will be done so all of them are being looked into but the process those are the last two to be completed this morning Thank you Thank you Dr. Joseph protocol established President good morning I am Dexter James Over the last 48 hours we have activated our hurricane plan and our disaster management team has been meeting at least twice a day to make sure that we are in a state of preparedness to address the perhaps unlikely event that this storm hurricane will hit us we assure the public that we, the OKU and it's the entire complex is in a state of readiness and preparedness any event eventuality whether it be a hurricane or a tropical storm in terms of our infrastructure on generators which are normally checked on a daily basis are fueled and can support the hospital for 12 continuous days we do have more supply that can run the hospital for at least 7 to 8 days which is above the standard set by PAHU WA2 of 3 to 4 days in terms of food supplies we've been taking steps to ramp up our food supplies over the last 2 months to at least 25% of our normal usage so we believe we pretty okay where food supply is concerned we've updated our call out listing as of today our backup team will be on campus to make sure that we have staff to continue operations in the event of our total shutdown we have also started to discharge patients as of yesterday the occupancy level now at the hospital is about 75% both at OKU and the national mental wellness facility we continue to discharge patients as of today there are 21 patients in A&E now that we are seeking to move on to the world patients on life threatening therapies dialysis, cancer treatments they've been called in to receive treatments, shorter treatments so that they could tie them over during this period of wait we in terms of the respiratory hospital the secondary care facility to be more exact we had a meeting yesterday with the disaster planning committee on that site as you know the facility has not been repurposed as castries multi-purpose medical facility we only have 10 patients in a 12 bedded unit at the chair swing 3 of those patients to be discharged today waiting for the relatives to to collect them they will be on oxygen okay so you just heard from the ministry of health personnel at this time I want to take you straight to the phone line and we have other phone is the chairperson of the VA for south district disaster committee and that is miss lindy ever say good morning, good evening sir really thanks for joining us on some watch you are on the ground what is the situation if you thought at the moment I'm sorry I missed the call can you tell me how you're planning it's a little bit you're coming in now then clear lindy go ahead thanks very much good night everyone we are here to present you for south district disaster committee the info secondary school has been activated and we have 3 females and 4 males the 3 females we have persons between the ages of 9 and 66 years and the males 11 to 63 years of these 3 males of the 2 first of the 7 31 1 is a disabled male a 4th year old rich born brown person and the other is a child a female who is disabled we also receive the report of packing of wires along the middle road we also have persons who are cold and I mean we've heard that we've noted packing of tools along the promenade and it's also a common wire of people along the in the mall behind the center of the district and we're also able to see the wire to just pack it at the moment and I wanted to show it to you it is quite best we have best feelings we also want to caution people that they should not come out at the moment the road which is the country's before highway also the end of the runway we're still going to see I don't think we're going to find a child that they were there was a building of which made it impossible for people to child so we have to caution people to be very careful to know that because of the best we have a number of family wires or pack of wires at the moment so I'll try to again show people to come out at the moment but please be careful the shelter has an activity area so this is this floor for now and we have also been with the board of our other shelter managers who are available in the zone so we have to be careful the viewport town is the fishing community as well what level of intervention have been made on behalf of the fishers is there did we just lose are you still on are you still on okay I'm asking in terms of the fishers what sort of intervention have been made on their behalf what intervention do you have of the craft the sea craft and I'm sure of course with the instruction they would have had to take those in land what sort of intervention was made on their behalf I can I can maybe know what you're saying are you talking about do we seem to be having some kind of issue I can have I can tell you a question okay so how are the fishermen down in viewport what is the weather like the fishers okay we may have to terminate this call Lindy if you can by any chance hear me you address some of the measures taken with some of the families who need shelter at this time for certain these individuals occupying the shelters would be thoroughly looked after over the course of this evening and into tomorrow alright well we'll perhaps have to end it here yes we have to call back a little later over the course of tonight we could try to make contact with chairs leadership of the various district disaster committees throughout the island throughout the island's 17 constituencies I want to still thank Lindy for taking the time to join us a team down there in view for South has had to be activated they're now tending to personnel individuals who are occupying the beamfield secondary school it is a designated emergency shelter in view for South Lindy also indicated that the storm tropical storm breath has caused some wind related damage down the power lines and trees but if I'm not mistaken she indicated that the necessary interventions have been deployed so teams are working to sort of restore connectivity and ensure roadways highways and byways remain clear traversable this is storm watch we will be continue to provide you with coverage updates bulletin related to the passage of tropical storm as soon as they come in as the evening progresses earlier in this broadcast we had a conversation with the director of med services the update for development in the change of Brett's pathway is encouraging for Saint Lucia the storm has dipped further south but the director of med services did issue this cautionary note the brunt of Brett can still pack of punch and Saint Lucia can expect to experience strong winds gusty winds Lindy in V4 South just confirmed that V4 South has experienced strong and gusty winds so that is a likelihood heavy rainfall is likely this evening and Saint Lucia remains under a tropical storm warning citizens, residents low lying areas this is rudimentary at this point stay indoors and wait you will be all clear from the Nemo or the Prime Minister we also had a discussion with the chair well the leader the director of the NEOC Mr Lucia he indicated that some active indicated that there was at least one rescue I think that was in the Denry area Denry village a 98 year old woman had to be removed from her dwelling and taken to a shelter nearby hopefully we can get a chance to speak with the DDC for Denry South that's Mr Oz Bridges former police commissioner other emergency shelters a few of them have been activated in advance of tropical storm Brett's passage these individuals who occupy a few of those shelters virtually have no place to say all their dwellings are just too compromised to chance riding out this storm in their homes so also over the course of this evening we revisited the pre-strike meeting the final pre-strike meeting before tonight before today before Brett moves through all parts of the region we heard from various stakeholders the ministry of tourism ministry of health just a few moments ago the public health institutions okay EU Victoria hospital now the castries urban health poly clinic yes castries urban poly clinic and even St. Jude hospital officials representing these institutions confirmed today to the prime minister to the NEMAC that their systems were a goal yes the necessary precautionary measures were activated and is ready to sort of weather the front of Brett weather Brett's passage tonight yes weather the storm so we do have a few more stakeholders to listen to in relation to their state of readiness the essential services yes we have quite a few of them so we will now try to cue the head of the St. Lucia ANC port authority before today or as of 10 30 this morning both airports were shut down temporarily and by 1pm the seaports and shipping ports were shut down or in an effort to ensure that life and property are secured are safe and that is very paramount yes so in a few moments we will hear from slasper to get a sense of their state of readiness ahead of tropical storm Brett good morning morning everyone morning prime minister members of cabinet acknowledge in the head table and persons who are viewing Darren Snack general manager St. Lucia ANC port authority and I would also like to acknowledge the chair of my disaster management committee Mr. Nicola Meyers who is also here with us today we forgot to slasper on our responsiveness firstly thank you very much prime minister for the decision on the airports and just to indicate the importance to everyone what it allowed slasper to do last night is to issue what you call a notice to airmen it allowed us to inform the community internationally that the airports will be closed from 10 30 today in fact the last flight is leaving George Charles airport at 9 50 this morning so that allowed us to communicate with the international community very early so you don't have persons going to the airport this morning trying to get a flight out of solution you don't have flights available with regards to our facilities in general we do have all of our the fleet vehicle fleet and our generators of course topped up as our normal emergency response and disaster preparedness our entire disaster preparedness team chaired by Mr. Meyers would have met yesterday just to review and ensure that everything is in place with regards to the the upcoming system at the airports we do have seven days of storage of water and we also do have of course our generators which would allow for electricity continuity for a few days we would have also at the seaports ensured that the drains have been cleaned in terms of any flooding to allow as much as possible for water to get outside of the facility into the seas our navigational systems, lights etc would have been removed our pilot boots would have been removed from the waters and of course after operations when businesses closed at the seaports at one o'clock today then we would take out whatever is remaining within the seaports because again we would be serving customers up until that time slasper once we close at one o'clock we will be doing sandbags Laplace Carinage just to secure the facilities and at the airports as well this would be done on closure from 1030 and at the seaports from one o'clock the container stacks which is normal we put them at two levels to ensure that if you have any strong winds you don't have any containers that are dislodged and cause a lot of harm so that has happened the crane would have been lowered as well our ports police will be on duty they are of course very critical in terms of security in the facilities so they are on shift and they will be on duty throughout we do have barracks at the facilities all of our facilities at slasper and I think I would have spoken about the no term yes in terms of communication very importantly we a few months ago would have ordered some new radios, hannel radios in the event that our main communication system goes down slasper also in the past would have ordered satellite phones so therefore we have one in the north one in the south to ensure that again that there is seamless communication and persons can report on anything that would have happened in terms of any adverse incidents that may happen at any of the facilities so we also have satellite phones and radio communication throughout the authority I think this would be the main points chair disaster management and the airports, yes prime minister so 10 30 10 30 to the years and it will be reopened after this all clear yes so once the assessment is done of the airport once you get the all clear and everything is normalized the no term with an issuance of a notice to air marinas you have to have an end time so we have given them an end time I think of three o'clock tentatively tomorrow but that changes based on all clear and all the conditions are acceptable for the aviation industry and you close the airport based on the airport was closed based on discussions between NEMO and some of our key stakeholders to ensure that we can we besides the traveling public that the entire airline community the 1,300 plus persons we have working within our airport community can get home safely so that is why the the airports were closed it also allowed for early notification so that the airlines would not be in transit and we await a decision out of NEMAC prime minister so that they would not be traveling to Senusia because the airplanes cannot safely land on the path above 20 knots and with tropical storm force winds expected it would not be safe at all for the aircraft to operate within our space so looking at all of those factors the decision was taken to close at 10.30 this morning and as well some of the airlines especially the original airlines had moved to cancelled flights because they realized their own mobility the main cargo planes that George House would have relocated their operations very early once there was a threat coming into Senusia our schools remain closed today our principals many of our schools are really emergency shelters and principals as the managers of the school are really the managers of the hurricane shelters they have been instructed to make all necessary facilities kitchens available for the purposes of any evacuation purposes for any homes that are standing by also we have asked that especially where schools are prone to flooding to remove all furniture and equipment and to place them on higher ground additionally we have our building officers who are ready to stand by when all clay is given so that they could go out make the necessary assessments for continuity of school we have also been in touch with UNICEF who also stands ready to provide any support to the education system and lastly we have our continuity of operations plan including the use of technology if it permits to allow for continuity of school beyond the period and this is it I thank you we would have taken a decision yesterday in collaboration with NIMU and the Met Office to ask students to stay home today and in true solution fashion we have gotten some flak because as far as people are concerned there is no rain what you must take into consideration is that the degree of vulnerability for children is a lot higher than that of the adult where children see fun and adventure when the water levels rise we see danger as adults to be safe rather than sorry and so moving forward once we are under a tropical storm warning the students of San Lucia whether there is rain or not will be asked to stay home we have a few exams original exams that are ongoing as we speak this morning a KIPP paper is being administered and KIPP is the replacement of well the CXC version of what used to be the A level exams and we have exams this morning we have two private centers the Fifott Comprehensive Secondary School the Arthur Lewis Community College and we are using the Stanley John Audlam Secondary School in Marigold as a private center so exams are ongoing this morning we were in consultation with CXC and even among ourselves there were a few persons who thought that the exam should have been postponed we said no reason being the paper being administered today is over duration of an hour they would have started at 9 and worn our 30 minutes thereafter that paper would have been written again moving forward we will rely on information from the Met Office and more to determine how we move forward but there are contingencies in place at the level of CXC in terms of what we should do in the event that the exams cannot be administered because of the threats posed by the impending system okay so you just heard from the Minister for Education Honourable Sean Edward and for some of you who might be experiencing some downlines Lucillek wants to remind you of the 24-hour false reporting and those are the numbers 4-5-2-2-1-6-5 4-5-2-2-1-6-5 and that is from the area from Capistate to Denry right through the West Coast and from Miku to Bouto is 4-5-7-4-8-0-0 again 4-5-7-4-8-0-0 and 4-5-2-2-1-6-5 okay with me now is the Acting Chief Fire Officer Mr. Ditney down to welcome Mr. Ditney it's not an occasion where I can say welcome to you I'm sure at this time it's not a stress but just give us an idea of what is happening in terms of the deployment of your officers okay as a the primary response agency on the island we are always ready to respond to any major emergencies as we speak during the storm or just before we responded to one incident in Denry where we evacuated a 98 year old lady from the shorelines in Denry and we also received a call for pull fire and slurry we are still evaluating whether we should respond to that but that will be based on the response we get from Lucille because we cannot respond without Lucille in terms of electrical fires and pull fire so that is still being evaluated as we speak but so far it has in terms of responses these are just the only two major responses and all calls we have gotten for help from the fire department what really happens as far as the fire service is concerned when you are preparing for such an event how do you go about deploying your men and women to ensure that every area at least is adequately a manned or you can respond to any eventuality so we take the two factors we take into consideration firstly we ensure that we have adequate manpower for response purposes secondly we also have to look at adequate manpower we also have to look at accommodation so you cannot have 20% in a station and you only have accommodation for 10% so we normally do not cancel the leave of firefighters what we do is a partial consolidation of leave so we men seek we need 10% maximum response we need 10% but in actual fact we only have 5 on duty then we cancel the leave of 5 so we know the station could accommodate 10% and that 10% will be adequate for any major response in that area so that is what we do when we plan for responses during situations like that now with the down power lines of course some homes will be experiencing power outage and of course they will tend to use candles and we have seen over the years some fires in certain areas of the island how I need you as fire chief acting fire chief to speak to persons to households what sort of precautionary measure would you like to take during this time okay we always advise and my fire prevention department have been a phenomenal job in advising citizens that we do leave open flames unattended obviously candles will be used during times like that but when you decide to go to bed we advise that it put this candles out so we want to stress again that you do leave open flames unattended especially if you have children whether you have children or not you don't do it especially if you have children what we have seen over the years is that parents allow children to handle open flames candles and so on and that is where the problem starts so as a responsible period you do allow children to handle candles or take the candle and go and look for that in the room and so on so we want to advise persons to be careful in terms of handling candles and so on now your job also entails rescuing as we have seen before even livestock even times when the farmer is going to rescue the animals and they get stuck so we are not just dealing with the remedial part of it but we want to do the preventative aspect of it so I wanted to speak to that aspect what is it that was expected from citizens when a storm where the system is approaching now in terms of taking care of our houses but also those with livestock so it is interesting that we say we have to rescue animals and we do that a lot especially cats for some reason cats too they are very protective of the cats so they always call us to rescue the cats whether it is drain storms or not we always have to do that but the Ministry of Agriculture before Hurricane would have advised that to secure the livestock now that is our culture that we follow some don't and then when you get a call that even cows they want us to come and assist them in rescuing the cows, the sheep, the goats we our job is to protect life and property or life so it does say that you have to protect human lives animal lives is life and property so we have to respond and we will assess the situation, assess the risk involved and then we will make a determination as to what is the next course of action perhaps you probably just wanted to give some general guidelines advice to the people who are watching right now ok so from a fire department point of view and emergency response point of view I want to listen to some citizens to take the warning of the demo take the warning of the police take the warning of the fire department stay indoors during the time frame that has been identified as it relates to the tropical storm what we have realized in past years when we in that situation most of our calls for assistance are during the storm because people didn't listen we cannot go out and assist you during the storm because we have to protect ourselves too you know the person in charge of that response the first responsibility is the safety of the officers under the command so we cannot put these officers in harm's way because if these officers are in harm's way they cannot do what they are supposed to do so we advise that if you take the heed of the response agencies then we shouldn't have a problem that we cannot come to your aid or your to assist and you or your family during the peak of the tropical depression or the hurricane so I just want to tell solution you know to listen your life is more important than anything else and some persons are being encouraged to evacuate their homes because of where they are located and we have refused we have gotten reports that we have asked persons to evacuate because of the potential dangers and we have refused to evacuate we cannot force you as a fire department to evacuate and we cannot if something were to go wrong we cannot assist you during the storm so I just want to encourage solutions and hope that everything goes well and we have no loss of life and minimal damage to properties so just before you go Mr. Downes I must say publicly that I really admire the fire officers I know you have a tremendous responsibility sometimes putting your own life at risk but how are your men and women doing generally well I will not say they are doing good I mean generally fire officers love what they do but lately we have been subjected to some violent sins in St. Lucia and I think it is taking a toll on the officers mentally but they are trained they are humans why is there a train for these situations they are also humans so there is a lot of non-traditional issues within the department that we have to deal with in terms of psychological health there is the briefing but the reality is the average age of fire officers the population of fire officers is about 23-24 years that is the reality so you have young persons being subjected to that kind of of sins so as a management team of the fire department we have to look at all these things and it presents a different challenge for us so once we have everything going on then we have new areas to deal with but like I said firefighters are committed no matter what the situation no matter what frame of mind they in they will respond to the cause of the situation that is quite commendable and the last year's figure I think we responded to 14,000 ambulance calls in a year the most very traumatic for your men and women they work hard I could tell you they work hard we are understaffed we are understaffed the same officers that work the ambulance sometimes when they get a break from the ambulance during the tour they have to work the desk or they have to double up on the truck a lot of persons I am happy that you admire them but a lot of persons show that level of respect to them or admiration to them but I could tell you I admire the officers I lead and I will continue to do what we are supposed to do these pilot challenges that we face well thank you Mr. Don nice talking to you all the best to you and your men and I just pray that you are being over us I am hoping that that will happen and you and I want to send you a safe a safe period during that challenging time thank you very much alright so at this time we want to go back to one of the NIMAC meetings and we have one already queued up for you and we are going to bring you one of those pre-strike meetings now joining us we are providing updates and coverage of Tropical Storm Brett as it moves over St. Lucia and the Windward Islands we have been receiving reports of gusty winds and damage over the course of the evening and it is important to keep handy numbers for some of the essential service providers that you can dial if you identify if you realize that there is a downed power line or even damaged water pipes in your area WASCO WASCO is the chief water supplier in St. Lucia they have teams on standby to respond to any pipe damage please take note of the following numbers they should flash on your screen momentarily to contact WASCO if you are in the event of a damaged water line please dial for castries 457 3958 457 3958 or 457 3960 those are the landlines that you can dial if you are in the castries area and you detect water damage to your pipes or public pipes in your community there are mobile numbers as well if you are not getting through with the landlines there are mobile numbers for WASCO castries 482052 482052 it is on your screen V4 in the south landlines for WASCO 457 3984 or 457 3993 mobiles for WASCO V4 also take it down 482051 or 4820201 these numbers if you are watching this broadcast on screen right now take it down follow WASCO on Facebook and their social media as well you can get updates and know exactly who to call when to call if you have issues with your water supply as a result of the passage of hurricane tropical storm with me tonight the acting commissioner of police Mr. Ronald Phillip the police form part of St. Lucia's protective services the acting commissioner is also part of the NEOC we will get some insight from Mr. Phillip in relation to the police's role in the event of tropical storms severe weather events and hurricanes like we are experiencing tonight Mr. Phillip how are you? you are spending the night at Nemo at the NEOC as opposed to elsewhere duty calls that's correct there is no place where we would rather be than involving the preservation of life property as far as the police's role as part of the broader effort to protect property and lives during storms hurricanes etc what are some of the instructions your officers are under as of now currently we have all our officers have reported in from vacation leave has been cancelled most of the officers are at stations closest to where they live cancelling vacation is not unusual is it? in the event of storms it's not unusual for essential services especially the police because we require that all hands are needed to assist during those times of crisis and you really can't take chances in the event of tropical storms hurricanes etc just earlier tonight the director of med services indicated that the tropical storm may appear to have weakened slightly however that is no reason or indication as he pointed out rightfully so that we should take it easy or be more laid back so your officers all hands are on deck vacation leave has been cancelled and they are at the ready to respond if needs be yes that's correct and that's the only thing about it that's why policing is such a noble profession so before just let me thank the officers who have come out because you know it's a sacrifice they have left their families they love ones and they are out there within the storm to ensure that solutions are safe soon on behalf of the entire institution I want to thank all those officers those hardworking those dedicated officers who have dedicated themselves and made themselves available and should the need arise would and as far as some of the activity your officers would have been engaged in over the course of the day and tonight would patrolling throughout the various communities be included in that what would have been some of the activities your officers would have been looking out for and involved in leading up to now and over the coming hours even before patrolling some of the officers I know I'm Sufra lab read different policing districts they would have met with the disaster management groups in the communities and come up with some plans as to how they how they would police those zones so prior to prior to now so we divided the country into four zones zone A, zone B, zone C, zone D zone A is the north zone that's headed by assistant commission of police Elvis Thomas zone B that's from Richfort to Vfort that's headed by acting assistant commission of police Albert Chalory zone C which is from library to Sufra that's by headed by acting assistant commission of police Lubbi Frithers and zone D that's the west coast acting assistant commission of police Fabian Montut so this is the first time we have sort of used that kind of approach where we just we divided the country into four zones so that each assistant commission of police could have responsibility so there could be greater focus on each area of specification so that is an operational change that we made coming into these circumstances and no doubt that kind of adjustment to sort of concentrate efforts across throughout four zones would have been informed by some sort of scientific analysis there this this worked somewhere else it could work for we don't want to have duplicity of rules and we don't want to confuse the public so that the areas know exactly who the commander is so instead of one person being bombarded with cause so there's almost like a separation of there's a separation of duty where persons can be held accountable because we have seen in cases where we have had natural disasters even in the US and there because of the level of confusion because operations are not streamlined then it lends itself to chaos so we tried so that this was one activity we used in terms of trying to mitigate against any issues coming into the storm but you are here at the NAOC you have four zones as you just pointed out do your commanding officers are you still in regular contact with them as the progression as the evening progresses yes so that's correct that's correct the commanding officers they would be reporting to me and we have been reporting they have reported to me up to about 15 minutes ago and they have all reported that their zones are being that their zones are quite quiet and that's that's that's crucial over the well over the past few minutes the eye of a tropical storm would have been moved closer and perhaps even moving over San Ocean as we speak downpours would be increasing in certain areas wind gusts have been affecting certain parts of the island now your officers in those various zones would be taking note of those updates those developments in those communities yes that's that's quite correct so right so that's quite correct so the officers the commanders are responsible for stations so the stations if they recognize any issues you report to the commanders and the necessary adjustments or the necessary actions would be taken so for example in ancillary in the west coast in the west zone was reported that there was issue with power lines so yes the police would respond and call the fire service the necessary action so that's the kind of level of coordination but so the police will work in jointly as you know active achieve the need on this right here with me so we are working it's almost as if there's a joint approach now while you're supporting the national effort to mitigate against damage to cause by tropical storm bread the police the chief responsibility is of course security so so a tropical storm or some weather event is occurring over St. Lucia that doesn't mean that your other responsibilities must be neglected in any way so security is still a priority right yes and that's correct again our primary function is security security of property preservation of life we know that sometimes criminals use these opportunities to loot to vandalize the police prior to the storm would have gotten some extra vehicles ssu is a little more mobile a little more agile in terms of responding to responding to any acts yes faster increase response time rather so right right outside the command center we have sergeants noel team who is present to take any instructions again the police have the police have to operate in this kind of dangerous condition and it is the police know that they have 100% support from the executive to take whatever action that is necessary to prevent crime or vandalism of property of any sort again the police officers are there I employ them to be professional and act within the parameters of the law but we are not going to tolerate any persons engaging in a fierce activity or thinking that they can use this term to exploit hardworking citizens of this country and as a career police officer I mean you would be familiar with persons sort of trying to exploit opportunities like now yeah that's correct and that's what that's what normally happens when persons believe that everybody is inside that they can be free to operate but I can tell you we have police officers we have police officers in every district and our streets are properly police and that will not affect patrolling or how might that how might the passage of a storm affect patrolling and the routine duties of a denry police station or an ancillary police station and so on obviously it's going to impede it's going to impede police intervention but it is not going to stop police action because we don't have a military and the police and that is the role of the police we are not going to we are not going to endanger ourselves or we are not as simple officers to put their lives at risk but if it warrants that a response is needed I am sure that we have a high level of commitment from the men and women of the recent police source and they are going to respond to any eventuality so any circumstance that the deem necessary. So men and women of the police force performing dual duties tonight security as well as disaster response in collaboration of course with the rest of with the likes of the fire service and so on Mr Acting Commissioner I want to thank you for your time if we are able to get further updates from you and through your officers later on this evening we will we hope to invite you back this is a reminder this is storm watch providing you the general public with some updates as it relates to the passage of tropical storm bread today just a reminder if you are just joining the broadcast the NEMAC held its second pre-strike meeting the Commissioner of course was in attendance we will now hear from some of the other essential services emergency services protective services personnel who were at the pre-strike meeting earlier today who gave the Prime Minister and the Board of NEMAC their respective updates so let's go back to that NEMAC meeting. I would have actually gone to the point of saying that it could be a hurricane but I just sorry I just got the 11 a.m. position and the strength remains at 70 miles per hour so it's not it's a strong tropical storm a hurricane is 73 miles per hour the other system at the back of it is tropical depression number four so given a better picture of how close it is to us so Saint Lucia is over here so we actually have in clouds already affecting Barbados and those are mostly high level clouds so the winds should be coming in later this afternoon so going on to the presentation okay this is schematic of what is to come give you a better picture of how things are so I'm going to give the 8 a.m. position it's 13.6 degrees north 57.0 degrees west it's about 270 miles east of Saint Lucia and the maximum sustained winds are 70 miles per hour or 110 kilometers per hour sorry no the mode yeah thanks and it's moving westward at 280 degrees or at 15 miles per hour so it's actually slowed down this is the model forecast and actually all the forecast have it passing north of us one or two have the system passing over the tip of the island in that most of the weather is north of the system so all the tropical storm force winds most likely north of that this is the intensity model it's not expected except in those two outliers to become a hurricane what is normally in the model and what happens sometimes can be this is storm watch ball by ball coverage updates in relation to tropical storm brett thank you all for staying with us over these past hours julita we've heard from quite a few members of the NEOC and we would have also heard the level of preparedness from the neemak membership and this point tonight we'd like to invite saint lucha to tell us what the experience is like in your neck of the woods how is tropical storm brett affecting you your community we do have a number that you can call into right now we'll do our best to give you a listening ear tell saint lucha let the world know exactly what your experience is like as we speak in relation to tropical storm brett that number is 713 8 880 713 880 this is the number you can call let us know what is happening in your neck of the woods feel free to call as things stand now and according to the director of med services not too long ago tropical storm brett is affecting saint lucha it remains a strong tropical system although the path has slightly changed moving southerly between saint lucha and saint vinson this is not to be interpreted in any way to mean that the system will not affect us we are still expecting tropical storm almost hurricane storm force wins and there is the potential for downpours up to 8 inches of rainfall in certain areas in saint lucha let us continue to take precaution and you take personal responsibility and that is important we need to take personal responsibility for our own safety and well being and that is staying indoors have your family emergency plans at the ready you would have heard from the director of NEMO in the days leading up to now about the importance of being prepared for weather events whether it is a tropical storm or a hurricane your family emergency plan is it should be available to everyone in your household everyone should know the safest place in the house in the event of an emergency your dwelling is compromised in any way of course there are essentials that you should always have at home especially considering that the Atlantic hurricane season lasts from June to November and it is a yearly occurrence this is common knowledge should be common knowledge for all of us living in this part of the world and tropical storm may at 20, 21 days or there about into the hurricane season is already affecting us we want to give the numbers again for Lusselec and Wasco and those numbers are for Wasco Wasco Command Center for the Castro's region that number would be 45739 58 or 45739 60 or you have a mobile 4519812 and there is also WhatsApp number 48200 502 for the View Fort area those numbers would be 4573984 or 4573993 also there is a WhatsApp number 4820051 482001 and so Lusselec the number is 4522165 and that's from Capistae to then we arrived to the west coast and also 45748000 that's from Miku to Buto so these are the numbers that you can call in the event that you have some interruption of some kind whether it be a down power line or has something to do with your water utility companies and of course they're going to be there as far as well as far as safe to do so they are the experts they have the capabilities of navigating to get to the critical emergencies so allow them to operate as efficiently as possible so just to remind all of you as to our location we are at station broadcasting live from the Nemo Secretariat this building is a crucial piece of public infrastructure it has to stay optimal at all times and our presence here we don't want to sort of strain on the resources here this broadcast we do not want this broadcast for instance to sort of divert resources away from the Nemo and we hope to have provided you with some updates to keep you informed and in the know as to what's happening throughout St Lucia but at this juncture to ensure that Nemo performs optimally and the NEOC and the other personnel here have the resources needed to see out the night and respond efficiently we need to conclude at this juncture and if needs be we will be rejoining down the road to provide further updates so just to until then we just would like our viewers to stay safe don't venture out stay indoors and of course stay tuned to the updates yes the med services will continue providing whether bulletins Nemo will continue issuing advisories in terms of disaster preparedness and the do's and don'ts pay attention, take heed of course collect your information from official sources this cannot be stressed enough and despite the apparent weakening of the tropical storm please stay indoors do not venture out at this point in time St Lucia this has been storm watch we want to thank you for taking the time out and tuning in tonight hope to be with you when the developments come in over the course of the night good night