Weather impossible to predict, warns premier
Damage on Grand Cayman caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004
(CNS): As the skies opened on Tuesday morning, dumping a deluge of rain on Grand Cayman and with more to come, the premier urged the public not to be too relaxed about the predictions of a very quiet hurricane season. Alden McLaughlin said he did not care for “hurricane predictions, especially when they tell us we don’t have much to worry about”, as he pointed to the dangers of complacency at the start of another season.
“Even the predictors themselves admit that it is impossible to precisely predict this season’s hurricane activity,” McLaughlin said, stressing that no one knows exactly how severe weather is going to impact us.
McLaughlin said Mother Nature is well equipped to “deliver a heavy blow at any point in time”, and while “we mere mortals affix a time for hurricane season … weather systems are no respecter of calendars”.
Almost eleven years on after the devastating impact of Hurricane Ivan in September of 2004, the premier said the storm caught Cayman off guard because the country had become complacent.
“I urge everyone – despite the predictions of weather prognosticators – to be prepared,” he said. “I beg you to stock up on fresh hurricane supplies and have plans in place for evacuations whether you decide to stay on Island or leave. And if you do decide to stay home, please ensure that your home is a safe place to remain as you ride out any storm.”
Describing the infamous storm as one of the “most horrific events of my life and one I hope to never go through again”, McLaughlin asked residents who were here to remember the storm as it barreled down on us and the aftereffects.
“If you didn’t experience Ivan or are new to the Islands, please talk to someone who has lived through the ravages of a hurricane and get prepared,” he urged.
Although the tropical outlook in the Atlantic and Caribbean remained calm Tuesday, local weather was anything but. The Cayman Islands Weather Service was forecasting several days of heavy rain in the Cayman area, with the possibility of flooding later in the week.
Category: Health, Medical Health, Science & Nature
“…weather systems are no respecters of calendars”. Wow!!! This man has a law degree! Best “ting” I can say is that Alden no “respecter” of “da Englisha languageA”.
It is going to get hotter and wetter. Not that impossible is it?
Funny how he has all the time in the world to comment ad nauseum on the weather. And yet nothing at all to say about the FIFA/Webb debacle. A storm that is already causing serious damage to Cayman and cannot safely be ignored. It is already past time for a strident government statement distancing Cayman from this rogue international organisation and its local appointee. Cayman did not make FIFA and FIFA must not be allowed to unmake Cayman.
The premier must be talking about the bad weather from the Webb storm, Alden the eye has not hit yet, just wait.
Most sensible thing he has said recently
Definitely not true… he also said mckeewa is a destabilizing force.
Good idea, lets not care for the weather predictions, but trust in what ?
Ivan did not catch the people off-guard that understand & monitor the weather in each years Atlantic & Caribbean hurricane season. Most of Cayman was well prepared for & had adequate warning time to prepare ahead of Ivan’s impact. What Cayman wasn’t prepared for was the level of damage from the impact. These are two distinctly different things…that the Premier seems to have gotten mixed up a bit…..
Remember when he said only God could stop his school? Why must he speak to the public as though we are his sheep?