(See videos in post)
“You would appreciate that we wouldn’t want to be caught twice in a matter of a few days not being able to provide information.” – Howie Prince, director of the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO).On Dec. 27, in the wake of the trough system that caused nine deaths and widespread destruction in St. Vincent on Christmas Eve, Director of the National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO), Howie Prince, said trough systems do not give indication of their movements.
(Watch video below)
However, when asked on Monday, Jan. 6, how his office was able to warn Vincentians, almost two days in advance about another trough system that was likely to affect the country later that day, Prince said that the science is improving.
The weather report provided by the Government’s Meteorological Office at the E.T. Joshua Airport at 6.m. on Dec. 24, 2013, clearly said that a trough system was affecting the country.
The report was broadcast on at least one radio station, the state-owned National Broadcasting Corporation.
Prince said that no one was on duty at NEMO when the weather system began affecting the country on Christmas Eve.
However, NEMO’s staff was mobilised that same evening and has remained active since.
The trough system also left extensive damage to housing and public infrastructure.
This has to be the fastest scientific break through in weather that I have ever seen. Nimo went from not being able to predict the trough, to be able to predict them in 2 weeks? Hahah, Sometimes I can’t believe the things that so called people in authority say with a straight face.
It’s easier for me to believe that you all were sleeping on the job the first time, and you do not want to get embarrassed a second time. Shame and disgrace.
I so agree with Blane that this is the fastest scientific breakthrough!!
The word on the ground is that NEMO officials all went to their merry homes neglecting their responsibility to the nation.
That organisation is charged with an essential public service. Its Officers MUST understand the nature and extent of their job as it relates to the security of the people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
With suffcient warning it is highly probable that we would not have lost so many lives.
It is often difficult for people to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.
NEMO failed to do it job and the officials should be held accountable for such high disregard for their mandate.
…and the impression you intend to be left by this article is to suggest what Kenton?
Suggestion: In this time of pain and suffering….find something uplifting to report man!
Well i don’ have that new ‘tech’ but i’ve been looking at what i always look at and since the week of christmas, that weather system has been over the eastern caribbean between Anguilla and Grenada everyday. My ‘tech’ shows rain starting about 200 miles east and ending 150-200 miles west of the islands and i’m really wondering if there’s something bigger, geologically, to happen in this area because the system is just not moving.
The NATIONAL EMERGENCY M.O had no one ” on duty”” ? I suggest that NEMO should have a named individual – on a rota basis, 24 hours a day , 7 days a week – charged with keeping an eye on weather reports, gathering relevant information from the Internet in order to ensure that the nation would be in a state of preparedness for any likely disaster. This can be done from the comfort of the individual’s home or , when out and about , a smart phone,
Hats of to NEMO and its director for the advances in meteorological science research over the past two weeks. If I may make one correction though, the director I think is being too modest in calling the newly developed trough systems tracking technology and evolution. Being able to make those advances in such a short space of time is nothing less than a transformation. What we need to push for is for the director to be promoted and transfered to the Ministry of Health where he can make similar advances in HIV/AIDS and other diseases.