Assistant Airport Manager Cecelia Vital has highlighted some of the measures which have been put in place at Dominica’s Ports of Entries to mitigate against weather systems.
Vital, who was speaking on the DASPA in Touch Program on Thursday morning, said that during Tropical Storm Erika the Air and Sea Ports were extremely hard hit and that they were still in recovery mode.
“How do we mitigate to avoid all this financial lost…Sometimes when it comes to the weather we try our best is let’s say we have an extreme hurricane we can only pray that we do not get hard hit,” she said.
The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on June 1, 2017, and will end on November 30, 2017.
Vital highlighted some of the works which have been undertaken at the Douglas Charles Airport.
“However the river is being dredged, the runway is being built back better and many things are being out in place at the Douglas Charles Airport…You can see the big boulders put on the side of the rivers because the main threat for us now with the Douglas Charles Airport is the river,” Vital stated.
She said that DASPA officials are praying that with the dredging and all the works that are going on that the Airport will be able to handle the quantum of water that comes in from a storm.
“We’re hoping that Erika was a one in a hundred years event and there will not be another on,” Vital said.
She mentioned further that even at the Roseau Ferry Terminal it takes very little high seas to be affected there.
“Many persons will remember I think it was during Omar when there were extreme big waves and it just destroyed the Ferry Terminal…We’ve reinforced the Ferry Terminal you can see the extension, the concrete backing at the back so it will prevent boulders and everything from the sea from going into the Terminal and destroying it so we can have it back active within really quick time and also to avoid very minimal lost,” Vital said.
She said this is essential to avoid the heavily financial investment which would be needed to have the Ferry Terminal back on stream.
Vital had this to say about the Canefield Airport.
“Canefield Airport, we honestly cannot afford to have anything done at Canefield Airport as it pertains to any storms coming our way…So we just pray that the Canefield River does not affect the airport and the seas on the runway at the time,” she stated.
Vital said DASPA officials are trying their best to see how they can really manage the ports in order to minimize the impact or any damages from any weather system.
BARDO not talking again so he pass de buck on to miss vital… so sorry for her… this airport is a labor party curse.
Allu let them man come and do all kine of nonsense with that river , without the input of knowledgeable local engineers and now see de kine of resources spent always having to dredge the damn thing .
Big boulders my foot , when these very same boulders will find them selves on the runway allu will blame natural causes . One fing i know God is watching and he dont like people always blaming him .
I suppose having to say $$$$ is being spent to make the airport safe sounds good , but just admitting it as a filter for our resources to specific individuals is out of the question .
I SMELL A RAT
So what you really saying is that your mitigation against bad weather is to hope and ,pray? Well, no need to spend a lot of money then.
The only measures in place are instruments to measure how many feet of water will flood the runway during the next rain storm.
The only measures it seems that is in place is prayers and hope. Hmmmm hmmmm
Didn’t you read ZULU……in case u miss it..here’s a quote from Vital…..“However the river is being dredged, the runway is being built back better and many things are being out in place at the Douglas Charles Airport…You can see the big boulders put on the side of the rivers because the main threat for us now with the Douglas Charles Airport is the river,” Vital stated. AND YES WE NEED TO PRAY AND HOPE…
Bwavo Coco. The Death trap!