Urgent: Weather Statement Prime Minister Mottley (June 28, 2024)

good night barbarians I've asked to be able to speak to you tonight because I've now been advised that we are more than likely going to be facing a storm and possibly even a hurricane category 1 within the next 48 hours earlier today I met with a range of government agencies ensuring that we prepare as best we can and as we know we must ensuring that we give you the opportunity also to be able to make the decisions and to do the preparations that are necessary to ensure your safety and indeed those of your family who are too vulnerable to do it on their own earlier tonight I would have asked my minister of Home Affairs to also speak to you and he will continue to speak to you tomorrow morning as I will address you tomorrow evening the reality is that we are not in a position to know exactly what type of weather we are going to face but we know we're going to face some weather and you and I know that when these things happen it is better to plan for the worst and pray for the best in those circumstances what are we doing earlier today mtw was asked to be able to look at all of the areas of potential flooding that we know usually occur and they would have started that from earlier this afternoon and will continue right through tomorrow and Sunday we are advised that the system is unlikely to hit us before early Monday morning and therefore we have these two 2 days to fully prepare we also would have spoken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the Ministry of Health and they have advised that there will be PSAs out advising persons to stock up on their medication but I go further if some of you are going to be required to leave home to go by family or to go into a shelter then I ask you to walk with your medication as well as the vital identification documents that you normally have as well as anything else that is precious that you would want to move with the reality is that we need to be ready we have also asked other persons within the tourism sector because we are visiting we are hosting as you know Cricket World Cup finals and we do have a lot of persons on island and while it is not expected to affect tomorrow's events we do believe that we have a duty to ensure that all who are here are also in a position to prepare themselves for any eventuality we therefore had the Barbados hotel and tourism Association as well as the ministry of Tourism with us today in addition to the Ministry of Health and the ministry of Public Works as I just said all of the other agencies from the police to the barbus Defense Force to the Ministry of Education that is in charge of the shelters I think there are 34 category one shelters and the category one shelters to remind you are those that you will go to to write out the hurricane if you do not believe that your house is safe enough for you to stay I want to urge the Young people in our community to help with the district emergency officers the deos over the course of the last few weeks we would have ensured that lists were compiled of vulnerable persons persons either vulnerable because they live alone and they're elderly or they may be challenged or persons vulnerable because their house may not be in a position to be able to withstand high winds or indeed the possibility of any landslide that is why we ask you to go to category one shelters if you feel that this is the position that you are in I'm asking the young people however who are not necessarily members of the deos in each Community to identify who your Deo is and also to work to identify those vulnerable persons to ensure that we don't leave anybody alone you know the bean way and the bean way is that we will be our brothers and sisters keeper we look out for each other and I want you to make it your duty as young people these are to the people that help put diapers on you and help raise you I want you to go back out and help make sure that we are there for them when we need to be I believe that this is the thing that all of us will want to do willingly so don't disappoint me I beg you by the same token I'm asking those of you who are going out tomorrow morning be prepared recognize that you may have to shop for a little extra especially those goods that will not perish in other words don't B a big set of meat nor in a big set of stuff to put in the fridge buy the stuff that you know going to last just in case and the beauty of it is that if it don't come the hurricane don't come or the storm don't come you got it for the next set of bad weather because whether we like it or not the truth is we're living in different times you hear me talk all the time about climate and the climate crisis well this is really rubber hits the road and the truth is that we will go through more and more moments like this we went through Hurrican Elsa we had the tropical um fre storm we're going to go through more and more moments like this because the temperatures out there are rising not only for us as we walk about but in the ocean and when they start to rise in the ocean the chances of storms and hurricanes are going to become greater and greater so I don't want to keep you too long tonight but I want you to be vigilant I want you to be prepared that has been the beauty of our people that is what has made us resilient as a people and I want you not to tell me oh I know boy we tired hearing uh-uh none of that there is a system out there I can't tell you whether it is going to be a storm or a hurricane or just enough na na na rain but I'm telling you there's going to be bad weather and in those circumstances I want you to be wise I want you to be safe and I want you to take things into your own hands I keep saying many hands make light work I'm satisfied that the government agencies are all putting things in place indeed the truth is that we have been doing and having meetings over the course of the last few months so today's meeting was not a hard meeting even though we spent about 3 hours there but because so much had been put in place the Water Authority has generators in every area Minister Abrams would have spoken to you with the people in bston that you may obviously with heavy rain get some um stiness and silt in the water again and therefore we've instructed the water authority to fill up the tanks four times if necessary over the weekend so when they fill up the community tanks you can take out the water and to come again fill it up take out the water again come again Sunday morning take out again and Sunday afternoon again why because if you don't need it you got enough water stored if you need it you got it there to preserve life and to preserve um the well-being of your family so I'm asking each and every one of us we are doing our part as a government I'm satisfied we're doing all that we can I want you to do your part as a member of your family and as a member of your community I say it many hands make like work if all of us can do this together across the communities in all 11 parishes believe you me we will ensure that we are as best prepared as we can be as fate would have it we're doing this while we're hosting the world but that is life and I have learned in this job that you got to be able to walk and true and we will walk walk through but my primary responsibility is to barbadians and to be able to get you ready and to have you ready for all that will unfold over the course of the next few days the truth is there may be some bad weather as well um later in the week it's looking like Wednesday Thursday coming after potentially whatever happens on Monday morning so know that next week is going to be a kind of a long week we hope that that one will not raise itself to a storm but even if it doesn't the inundation of water coming after what happens on Monday is likely to cause problems so let us apply our hearts to wisdom let us do what we know we need to do let us ensure that we look out for each other and if you're in talking to your neighbor who used to um who next to you and you know that the neighbor got problems beg and go and talk to them now because this is the time where all the Grievances that you had is to be put one side and all of us can together as one as we know we can and must in order to keep each other safely and in order to protect this country our property Our Lives I ask God to bless us as we go through the next few days and to continue to ask you to listen to the official channels to the official social media sites because there's a lot of fake news out there you don't get tired with the fake news you know what government information service look like you know what Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation operation look like you know what voice of baras look like you know what baras today look like and of course you know the nation newspaper and all other official sources stick to them you can't go wrong and stick to the district emergency people the district Emergency Management Services and Minister Abrams and the meteorology office will keep you updated today we had the benefit of not only the Met Office but also the Caribbean Institute of Metrology and hydrology and of course even before they met with me today they were also in conversation with the National Hurricane Center the hurricane hunter does not go into the system I'm advised until Sunday morning 8:00 so the truth is that we will continue to look at the models and the tracking but we won't have that level of certainty until Sunday morning so use Saturday tomorrow to prepare yourself and to ensure that we take care of each other I ask you only now to continue to listen be vigilant and to put up a lot of prayers because we know that we will once we do the right thing we prepare and we take care of each other whatever happens we can get out of this trying to be safer than if we did nothing at all so that is why you're hearing me at Half 8 on a Friday night I sorry if I make wake up some of you or disrupt some of you from your night rest but you know I would only do it if it was urgent and necessary God bless you and God bless why with us thank you

Channel: PMOBarbados

Views: 158,712

Keywords: Barbados, Prime Minister of Barbados, Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Amor Mottley

Id: H4rX2nPTj_Y

Length: 10min 31sec (631 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 29 2024