BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – EXPRESSIONS of relief are being made across the Atlantic and Caribbean as Saturday (Nov. 30) marked the official end of the 2013 Atlantic Hurricane Season.
It was a long and anxious six months with many preparing and pondering the possibilities if major storms should strike, especially when forecasters had predicted that the season would be an active one.
According to their forecasts, there were to have been 13 and 20 named storms with somewhere between seven and 11 progressing into hurricanes. But those predictions were quite off with this year’s season being named the most inactive in approximately 30 years.
Reports indicate that notwithstanding that 13 storms had formed, only two became hurricanes and they were not major. The first was Tropical Storm Andrea and the last Tropical Storm Melissa.
As with many other territories within the Atlantic Basin, the Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis was spared any impact from those storms and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has asked for the churches of the land to extend prayers of thanksgiving to God for his blessings.
Public Relations Officer for NEMA, Vesta Southwell told SKNVibes that while we are offering prayers of thanksgiving for being spared, we must also remember to pray for those who were not as fortunate.
She expressed hope that persons do not slip into a stupor of carelessness in failing to continue to prepare as the various seasons approach in the coming years.
“We hope that out of all of this that persons who think that this past season means that we are in the clear in the future would not become lackadaisical, but that they would continue to prepare every year to protect themselves and their families and not fall back and think we are blessed so no hurricane can befall us.”
The last major storm to strike St. Kitts was Hurricane Omar in 2008.