Lloyd B is out of it!

THE EDITOR, Sir: I READ with utter amazement the letter by Lloyd B. Smith in The Gleaner dated Thursday, October 6, 2016 headlined ‘Hurricane forecast conundrum’.

I am wondering if this is the same gentleman who once sat in our Houses of Parliament, but I would rather believe it is not. If it is, I would like to remind him that he is no longer in Parliament, where it appears you are free to say anything without it attracting intelligent scrutiny.

For him, or any others, to suggest that the Met Service workers are a pack of jokers because they were predicting, up to Saturday, that the island was in the direct path of a hit by Hurricane Matthew, yet (thankfully) this did not happen, is so ridiculous and ludicrous. It begs the question as to whether Mr Smith is in full control of all his faculties.

BEING PROACTIVE

I am not sure which television stations Mr Smith was watching, but many of the millions who were watching other stations were convinced that Jamaica would suffer a serious natural disaster. Every reputable weather service – from Europe, North America and the Caribbean – were predicting the same thing, almost without exception.

What happened, Mr Smith, is that some other weather system intervened to force Matthew to make a sharp northern turn. Thank God for our sakes.

I remind Mr Smith (and any others of his ilk) that up to late last week, the ‘non-jokers’ in the other international met services were saying (just like our ‘pack of jokers’) that Matthew would NOT threaten the United States. As I write, at least two states have declared a state of emergency and are instructing thousands of people to evacuate their homes. Go figure.

I congratulate our met service and the Government of Jamaica for being so proactive and fulsome in their communication. The fact that Matthew missed us is what we should be giving thanks for while we pray for, and try to help, our Caribbean brothers and sisters in Haiti. STEPHEN HARRISON St Mary