Caused major disruptions and deaths in DR and Haiti
by Bennette Roach
By Monday evening this week a tropical wave in the Eastern Caribbean picked up steam to become Tropical Storm Emily. Once again, Montserrat was spared any serious affects from a storm but suffered thunderstorms with frequent showers of rain.
By Tuesday, all the official Meteorology centres for various islands of the region issued tropical alerts. Montserrat’s alerts are usually issued out of Antigua. At that time, the Met office for the government of Antigua & Barbuda issued a tropical storm watch for: St Kitts Nevis, Montserrat and Antigua and Barbuda.
The storm’s centre passed over 100 miles west of Montserrat but doused the islands with rain affecting seriously Carnival celebrations in Antigua forcing them to postpone their last lap celebrations to Sunday, but was still affected by rain.
The storm forced LIAT to put out cancellation notices and changes to their regular schedules.
A LIAT advisory said. “…due to the passage of Tropical Storm Emily services throughout its network have been severely disrupted…A limited operation has been mounted between St. Kitts, St. Maarten, Anguilla and Tortola however these services could be cancelled at short notice because of the prevailing weather condition.”
That affected the production and delivery of last weekend’s issue of The Montserrat Reporter which to date had not arrived for delivery.
Meanwhile, on Friday, although it was reported that the storm had spared Haiti, the storm killed four people in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, authorities said, as remnants of the storm drifted over the Caribbean with a “high chance” of restrengthening into a tropical cyclone.
Emily, the fifth named storm of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, dissipated Thursday as it approached mountainous Hispaniola island, which is shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Reports said Emily could still pack a punch after its heavy rainfall killed three in the Dominican Republic, two of whom were swept away by a swollen river in Higuey, a small town about 100 miles (160 km) east of the capital Santo Domingo.
At least one other person died in neighboring Haiti in flooding in the sprawling southern city of Les Cayes.
Thousands of Dominicans and Haitians were forced to evacuate their homes because of Emily, with dozens of villages cut off by floodwaters, officials said.
The season is expected to see about 9 hurricanes, 17 named storms and 5 major hurricanes. The next is to be named Franklin.
