The Minister provided an update during the Sixth Sitting of the Fourth Session of the Fourth House of Assembly at Save the Seed Energy Center in Duff’S Bottom, Tortola on July 21, 2022.

As the 2022 Hurricane season progresses to a slow start, Deputy Premier and Minister for Communication and Works Hon Kye M. Rymer (R5) says his ministry is collaborating to address the cleaning of drainages and Ghuts.

Ministry 'prepared'- Hon Rymer

Hon Rymer in a speech said, “The Ministry, through the Public Works Department and the Water and Sewerage Department, is prepared. The Public Works Department is in full throttle readying the territory by ensuring that all drains and ghuts are cleared of debris. This helps in mitigating the adverse effects of heavy rainfall that can cause flooding.

“The Water and Sewerage Department is doing everything to ensure that the water reservoirs are sufficiently filled to mitigate the adverse effect of hurricane force winds,” Hon Rymer said.

The 2022 Hurricane Season has been off to an extremely slow start with just three named storms that reached tropical storm status (sustained winds 39 – 73 mph) and no hurricanes.

The last-named storm was Tropical Storm Colin, which impacted the USA for the first few days of July.

Forecasters at the US’s NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service, are; however, predicting above-average hurricane activity for 2022 fueled by La Niña, and above-average Atlantic temperatures.