BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Sept 27, CMC – Residents in the Eastern Caribbean were on Tuesday bracing for the passage of a tropical wave producing winds to near tropical storm force and located about 300 miles east of Barbados.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that reports from an Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft indicated that the tropical wave does not have a close surface circulation.
“The system is producing winds to near tropical storm force and the thunderstorms activity continues to show signs of organisation. Conditions are expected to be favourable for development, and a tropical depression or tropical storm is likely to form tonight orWednesday,” the NHC said.
It said the system is moving westward to west-northwestward at 15 to 20 miles per hour and is expected to pass over the southeastern Caribbean Sea late Wednesday and Thursday.
The NHC said that interests in the Windward and southern Leeward islands, Bonaire, Aruba should monitor the progress of the system.
But the NHC reiterated an earlier position that regardless of development, heavy rains and tropical storm force winds in squalls are expected to spread over the Windward Islands – Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines – and portions of the southern Leeward Islands beginning late Tuesday and continuing into Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a statement issued by the Department of Emergency Management has said that all gas stations should close by 6.00 pm (local time) and that all state-owned public buses would cease operations two hours later.
It said also that all schools will be closed on Wednesday.
Dominica and St Lucia has also announced a similar measure regarding schools.