As the coun­try pre­pares for a trop­i­cal storm and the ac­com­pa­ny­ing heavy rains and winds, one would hope that re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions, Gov­ern­ment min­is­ters and Mem­bers of Par­lia­ment are al­so ready to swing in­to ac­tion to en­sure that those se­vere­ly im­pact­ed by any ad­verse sit­u­a­tion can get im­me­di­ate help.

It is no se­cret that in sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties na­tion­wide, floods hap­pen even with nor­mal rain­fall and the streets of Port-of-Spain al­so flood fol­low­ing a mere five min­utes of heavy rain. Add to that the traf­fic con­ges­tion on the na­tion’s roads that seems to have be­come the norm. Roads are al­ways clogged dur­ing peak hours and should the ex­perts' fore­cast ma­te­ri­alise to­day, there could be chaos on the sin­gu­lar route that takes cit­i­zens out of the cap­i­tal city to the east, cen­tral and south re­gions of Trinidad.

More im­por­tant­ly, though, is the mo­bil­i­sa­tion of re­sources that must oc­cur if the worse hap­pens.

How many re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions are re­al­ly ready with emer­gency plans, evac­u­a­tion shel­ters, trans­port, sup­plies and work­ers and ma­chin­ery for de­ploy­ment?

No one knows what will ma­te­ri­alise over the next 48 hours.

On Sun­day, Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Faris Al-Rawi put the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions, who are the first re­spon­ders in nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, on alert, with the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (ODPM) al­so sup­pos­ed­ly wait­ing in the wings

We note that there is now a high-lev­el team of min­is­ters ap­point­ed by Cab­i­net to treat with re­spons­es to weath­er sys­tems and we are hap­py to hear Min­is­ter Al-Rawi say the Gov­ern­ment is tak­ing this mat­ter se­ri­ous­ly.

Yes­ter­day, To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine said they are al­so prepar­ing for the worst.

In the­o­ry, this should mean all the emer­gency re­sponse teams are ready to act at full ca­pac­i­ty im­me­di­ate­ly.

In every­thing, prepa­ra­tion is crit­i­cal. Un­for­tu­nate­ly, this coun­try fails time and again to take ad­van­tage of the dry sea­son to do some of the re­quired de­silt­ing and clear­ing of drains and rivers that is re­quired, which of­ten re­sults in floods no mat­ter the rain­fall.

In the past, cit­i­zens have got­ten by on a prayer and a hope and the old adage that God is a Tri­ni. To­day, we face what could be the worse weath­er sys­tem to pass our way for some time and we hope that the prepa­ra­tion did not start just over the week­end with Min­is­ter Al-Rawi's promise but that the ODPM, re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions and the Gov­ern­ment are re­al­ly ready to rush to the help of com­mu­ni­ties that may be af­fect­ed in a neg­a­tive way should the coun­try be hit by se­vere weath­er.

This is just the start of the hur­ri­cane sea­son and as we face this bad weath­er over the next two days, we pray that the worst will pass us and that the most vul­ner­a­ble will not be af­fect­ed by any neg­a­tive even­tu­al­i­ty.

We al­so urge the au­thor­i­ties, in this cri­sis mo­ment, to stop the pol­i­tics and en­sure there is even-hand­ed­ness in the han­dling of what­ev­er may lie ahead. At the end of the day, we must en­sure that all hands are on deck so that the cit­i­zens of T&T who may need help are fa­cil­i­tat­ed.