Foreign Ministry urges Surinamese nationals to stay alert

Hurricane season 2019:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Buza) is urging Surinamese nationals who live in or who want to travel to the Caribbean, the Central and the North American region stay alert because of the heavy storms and hurricanes that hit these regions every year. The ministry recommended that Surinamese nationals stay up-to-date by following the weather reports. This will enable them to take the necessary safety precautions against these natural phenomena. The Foreign Affairs Ministry deemed it necessary to urge Surinamese nationals to be careful due to the fact that many of them go on vacation in the summer. The ministry also advises travelers to contact the Surinamese embassy in Washington DC or the consulate in Willemstad, Curaçao whenever they face a hurricane or storm. Surinamese nationals who require assistance can also call the ministry’s Consular Affairs Department by dialing 477030 before dialing extension 278. The Atlantic hurricane season, which started on June 1 and lasts until November 30, is just now reaching its peak. Hurricane season peaks on September 10, and during the eightweek period surrounding that date, storms begin to form quickly. This season, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted that there would be 10 to 17 named storms and that five to nine of them would become hurricanes. As things stand now, there have been seven named storms: Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dorian, Erin, Fernand and Gabrielle. Two of them, Barry and Dorian, strengthened into hurricanes. Dorian has been the only major hurricane so far, slamming into the Bahamas with sustained winds of 185 mph and gusts reaching 200 mph. The reason there will likely be more storms in the weeks ahead is because the weather phenomenon known as El Niño has ended. El Niño refers to a warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean, mainly along the Equator. During an El Niño, there are more storms and hurricanes in the eastern Pacific. But the effect in the Atlantic is the opposite, decreasing the chances a hurricane will form. “El Niño typically suppresses Atlantic hurricane activity but now that it’s gone, we could see a busier season ahead,” Gerry Bell, lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, said in a news release.