Phillips: Ja needs a comprehensive disaster-mitigation programme

THE 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season begins on Friday, June 1, and the Opposition has called on the Government to implement a comprehensive disaster-mitigation programme.

Mikael Phillips, opposition spokesperson on works, in making his Sectoral Presentation in Parliament on Tuesday, urged the Government to take note of Tropical Storm Alberto, which barrelled down the Gulf Coast earlier this week.

“Mr Speaker, others [hurricanes] will come and will take different paths, but we have seen (the) destruction that they are capable of unleashing. Mr Speaker, we have no control over these seasonal weather systems, but the best preparation is to keep our roads, gullies, and drains clean,” Phillips said.

Phillips charged that routine infrastructure maintenance was not a priority for the Government but noted that it was important to not just hope that the country would be spared.

TIME IS NOW

“We cannot afford that kind of approach any longer, Mr Speaker. The time is now for a comprehensive disaster-mitigation programme to save the billions lost in infrastructure, agriculture, and housing damage every year,” Phillips noted.

He added: “In recent months, we have experienced unusual weather and flooding in several areas of the country, yet we have not seen the requisite investment into remedial works in our communities to protect us from the destruction of these off-season torrents.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Centre in the United States has forecast a 75 per cent chance that the season, which runs through to November 30, would be near or above normal. NOAA advises that “an average hurricane season produces 12 named storms, of which six become hurricanes, including three major hurricanes.”