State of emergency before Irma was necessary- Carvin Malone
Hurricane Irma ripped through the Virgin Islands on September 6, 2017, leaving death, destruction, homelessness, panic and widespread looting.
The National Democratic Party (NDP) Administration has been widely criticised for not calling a state of emergency before the hurricane to create a sense of urgency among the masses and prevent issues of looting after the hurricane had passed.
Premier Dr The Honourable D. Orlando Smith (AL) has shockingly since said there was no point in calling a state of emergency before the killer hurricane.
"The United States and its Territories, they get assistance in terms of aid, FEMA on the ground. We don't get such assistance so a state of emergency, there would be no point in that," Premier Smith told Opposition Member Honourable Julian Fraser RA (R3) in response to a question during the Eleventh Sitting of the Second Session of the Third House of Assembly on November 13, 2017.
Better prepared
But according to Mr Malone, a state emergency would have allowed people to better prepare themselves to brace for the storm.
Mr Malone was speaking as a guest on the ZBVI 780 AM radio show, Honestly Speaking, with Mr Claude O. Skelton-Cline on Tuesday November 14, 2017.
“I will tell you why it might have been important for the state of emergency to be put in place earlier, because if you as an employer is not looking for the employees to come out to work…if you had a state of emergency saying that you have to be indoors for x amount [of time], than at least you know this is serious and then everybody would be called upon to stay home and prepare their particular place.
Why didn’t we know about potential direct hit earlier?
Meanwhile, Mr Skelton-Cline was concerned that it was not communicated earlier to the people about the severity of the storm and that the VI was going to get a direct hit as persons overseas, including in the United States and the United Kingdom had known days before that the core of Irma was going to impact the Territory.
“What did the powers that be, DDM, and whoever they report to, what did they know and when did they know it and was it adequately and accurately communicated to us as a people so that we would have done a far better job that what we did in preparation?”
Some people have related to this news site that they learnt about the oncoming direct hit just a couple of hours before the hurricane struck via a mobile text broadcast while some said they actually saw the text only after the hurricane had passed. In both cases, they reasoned, it was way too late.
According to Mr Skelton-Cline, his eldest sister was telling him that a meteorologist in the US broke down [in tears] on TV “because when they saw what was impending on the BVI and the Virgin Islands, they were saying that these people cannot make it and I have heard that on a few other occasions where the people on the US mainland, some even in the UK, that was the news that was being communicated.
“If that was the news that was being communicated there why was that not being communicated here. How is it that we did not have a sense of urgency about what was going to happen to us?”
Mr Skelton-Cline also called on the Governor and the Government of the day to put whatever there needs to be put in place so that the people of the VI would not be left so vulnerable again.
“We cannot afford to leave our people so vulnerable again, pre or post any type of hurricane, because we are going to remain in the hurricane path. “We were not prepared.”
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15 Responses to “State of emergency before Irma was necessary- Carvin Malone”
If anyone was listening to the weather reports on ZBVI, and you heard the urgency and fear in John Tuey's voice that alone ;et you know the storm was serious. He was so frighten for us, apparently more so than some of us were for ourselves. Every time I heard him it gave me a sense of forboding, that helped me to prepare and pray for my family through out the Virgin Islands and we came out great. Thanks be to God.
Listening and taking heed is very important, be it a Cat 1 or Cat 5. One never know if it would intensify over us, swerve from us or to us. You can never be over prepared or over cautious.
I remember a few people making fun at me while shopping and preparing for the hurricane, are they laughing now, I dont think so.
Storms are unpredictable, its better to prepare than not to and regret after.
We perish for a lack of knowledge, we had it because we were informed. What we did with the information is important to our outcome. Some choose to heed and some did not. The Government is not to blame, but yes a more profound warning would have helped for better preparation and the seriousness of the storm. However, some still wont have heeded and some would.
We have learnt a lesson and hope that even if its a tropical wave/storm we will all be prepared no matter the outcome.
One BVI/