2023-10-21 03:47:14
Guadeloupe goes into red cyclone alert on Saturday at midnight local time (6 a.m. Paris time), in anticipation of the passage of Hurricane Tammy, the region’s prefecture announced overnight.
“This alert level targets phenomena with a very significant impact”said in a press release the prefect Xavier Lefort, who called on the population of the archipelago to join ” a shelter “ and to “respect all recommendations from the authorities”. The list of safe shelters, which everyone can join if they wish, was communicated early Friday evening.
Classified category 1 since Friday 11 a.m. (local time), Hurricane Tammy directly threatens Guadeloupe, where it has already generated strong winds, which reached at 5 p.m. “120 km/h with gusts to 148 km/h” according to Météo-France, as well as heavy rain, which will persist until Sunday.
The hurricane should “pass as close as possible to or on the Guadeloupean archipelago on Saturday during the day”, specifies Météo-France. Tammy should also continue her trajectory “not far from Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy during the night from Saturday to Sunday”, according to the same source. These two islands, located in the northwest of Guadeloupe, will go into cyclone red alert on Saturday at noon local time, the prefecture announced.
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Risk of submersion
Since Friday evening, Guadeloupe has been at a standstill. All weekend events were canceled, planes were grounded and maritime connections between the islands were suspended.
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Human resources as well as water stocks have been prepositioned on the island of La Désirade, and also in the municipalities of eastern Grande-Terre, such as Sainte-Anne, Le Moule and Saint-François, to compensate for the inevitable outages in the event of severe bad weather.
The approach to maritime installations (ports, anchorages, etc.) must also be secure, in particular because of the risk of submersion, Météo-France currently forecasting depths of up to 5 meters.
Since confirmation on Thursday of Tammy’s passage near the coast of Guadeloupe, residents of the island have rushed to supermarkets, loading their shopping carts with packs of water and food. Friday afternoon, some were tidying up their terraces, others were still attaching plywood to the windows to prevent broken glass.
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