Red Cross in Americas prepares for hurricane season

The Atlantic hurricane season will officially start on 1 June, and meteorological experts are predicting that the Caribbean and Central America could witness above average levels of activity.

Experts’ forecast that the season, which lasts until then end of November, will produce up to 14 tropical storms, with six to eight of these becoming hurricanes, of which two to four may be classified as major hurricanes.

Red Cross preparations for the hurricane season are well under way. Today, in St. Lucia representatives of 23 Central American and Caribbean national Red Cross Societies, Overseas branches and other actors such as ECHO (European Commission Humanitarian Office), Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI), United Nation's office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) or the Caribbean disaster and emergency response agency (CDERA) will gather for a three day meeting on disaster preparedness.

Participants will revise and update contingency and co-ordination plans. The meeting will specifically focus on strengthening disaster management networks in the region.

“Time and again it has been shown that disaster preparedness pays off”, says Santiago Gil, Head of the Americas department at the International Federation. “The Red Cross has witnessed how preparedness can save lives on several occasions in the Americas.”

The Red Cross plays a critical role in disseminating early warning messages and safety information at the local level by mobilizing its unique network of volunteers and community members.

“Every hurricane season in the Americas, when terrible storms strike, those countries that gets the information and manage to spread the word, suffer much less,” Gil says.

“For example, in Jamaica, once meteorological information is received electronically and analysed, Red Cross volunteers go from street to street, using megaphones to alert people to the danger, “ he explains. “They encourage marginalised groups or people with special needs such as elderly and disable to hang a white flag to signal that they need help to evacuate”, he adds.

The International Federation has also prepared the material resources to respond to big storms. Support from ECHO, among others, has enabled the International Federation to run the preparedness meeting and to purchase relief stocks ready to be deployed from Panama.

“By June, we will have the capacity to meet the needs of some 25,000 families,” says Steve McAndrew, International Federation Pan- American Disaster Response Unit coordinator based in Panama.

“We have in stock materials such as plastic sheeting, hygiene kits, kitchen sets, jerry cans and provision of clean water ready to be distributed whenever it is required”, he said.

The 2005 hurricane season broke all records in the number of named storms, their intensity and behaviour. It was considered to be the most active ever recorded in the Atlantic, and in hurricane history.

There were a total of 27 named storms, 14 hurricanes and seven major hurricanes last year. As a result, last year the International Federation appealed for more than ten million CHF to meet the needs of 171,000 people in 12 of the worst affected countries including Haiti, Jamaica, Bahamas, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Cuba.