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Last Updated: Jan 22nd, 2008 - 08:54:54 |
Source: http://www.antiguasun.com/paper/?as=view&sun=281935077507132005&an=275008087801212008&ac=Local
St. John's, Antigua & Barbuda, January 21, 2008 (Antigua Sun) - Considerable rains accompanied by lightning between Sunday and yesterday resulted in floods, school closure and a boat fire in Antigua and Barbuda.
Dark stormy weather besieged the country between the two days causing great concern.
The streets became waterlogged and normally flood prone areas, such as Pigotts and Creekside, became flooded. National Office of Disaster Services Director Philmore Mullin said, however, they had no adverse reports of flooding..
Lightning struck around the country and even caused a boat in Falmouth to catch a fire. Chief Fire Officer Baldwin Joyce said that other boats were also struck but no fire resulted.
As a result of the continued bad weather, however, the Ministry of Education announced a day off for public schools, a decision that was soon followed by the private schools.
Chief Education Officer Jacintha Pringle said they took the action as a precaution. “We have to ensure that our students are safe when they get to school. Many of the school plants were waterlogged this morning (yesterday) and instead of having children break a limb or something we thought it was wiser to have them stay at home.”
A number of parents complained that the notice of closure, announced at approximately 7:30am, came too late. One said that it was very unfair because they usually drop their kids off early.
Pringle expressed her apologies to those parents saying that they watched closely for improvements in the weather for as long as they could, but finally decided to go with the closure in the name of safety. She said they have no regrets. A lot of schools had apparently been deserted before the official notice.
She promised that in the future they will make such announcements earlier.
The closure of the schools also had an effect on the National School Meals Programme (NSMP), which had already initiated meal preparation.
Senator Joanne Massiah, Junior Minister of Agriculture with special responsibility for NSMP said that they always have a plan B in place for such unexpected turns.
The approximately 1,500 meals completed were distributed to the Fiennes Institute, the prison, the Sunshine Home for Girls, the Boys' Training School and the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
Massiah said that by 12:30 all the meals were distributed, as usual. The NSMP prepares over 3,000 meals on regular school days.
Acting Deputy Director of the Meteorological Office George Braithwaite said that the storm was caused by the remnants of an old frontal boundary or trough, an elongated region of low atmospheric pressure, along with low level pockets of moisture.
The wide reaching weather system affected the north eastern Caribbean over the weekend. That includes the Leeward Islands, the Virgin Islands, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico.
He said that between 2 p.m., on Sunday and 8 a.m., Monday, 44 millilitres or 1.73 inches of rain fell. Indicating the enormity of rain that fell within that one day, from Friday morning to Monday morning, the Met Office recorded 52 millilitres or 2.04 inches of rain.
“Most of the rain fell between Sunday and Monday, by far,” he said.
The system is moving westward away from the affected islands, this was indicated by the sunshine which was felt towards the end of yesterday. Braithwaite said that Antigua and Barbuda should experience rainfall throughout the week because of the prevailing moisture pockets.
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