Camille McEach­nie

Trop­i­cal Storm Gon­za­lo was pre­dict­ed to hit To­ba­go yes­ter­day at 5 am. The Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Of­fice warned To­bag­o­ni­ans to ex­pect rough seas, with coastal waves up to four me­ters, show­ers, thun­der­show­ers, street, and flash flood­ing. In­stead, the storm squeezed be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go, leav­ing in its wake heavy show­ers and mi­nor dam­age.

The T&T In­ter-is­land Trans­porta­tion resched­uled its Fri­day in­ter­is­land sail­ings but can­celled all yes­ter­day.

Caribbean Air­lines’ last flight from To­ba­go on Fri­day was 5.45 pm and, there were on­ly two flights yes­ter­day morn­ing as the rest were can­celled from as ear­ly as 6.55 am.

To­bag­o­ni­ans, for the most part, buck­led down for a bat­ter­ing that nev­er came.

On Fri­day night, the To­ba­go Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (TEMA), ac­ti­vat­ed its com­mand cen­tre com­pris­ing all es­sen­tial ser­vices.

The Pro­gres­sive De­mo­c­ra­t­ic Pa­tri­ots sus­pend­ed its cam­paign in Scar­bor­ough/ Calder Hall on Fri­day and Good­wood yes­ter­day.

By yes­ter­day morn­ing, TEMA or­dered that ten of the is­land’s shel­ters be opened.

Equip­ment and men from the THA’s In­fra­struc­ture Di­vi­sion were ready to be de­ployed at a mo­ment’s no­tice and all oth­er THA de­part­ments were on stand­by.

THA’s Scar­bor­ough mar­ket and Pi­geon Point Her­itage Park as well as pri­vate busi­ness­es, such as Movi­eTowne, View­port su­per­mar­kets, and shops closed.

How­ev­er, by noon TEMA, on ad­vice from the Met Of­fice, no­ti­fied every­one that the sit­u­a­tion had changed.

“The worst has passed us,” said TEMA’s di­rec­tor Al­lan Stew­art said.

He said there were on­ly two re­ports of dam­age. A roof blew off a bus stop in Ar­gyle and a fall­en tree dam­aged the Les Coteaux Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre. How­ev­er, Stew­art still urged To­bag­o­ni­ans to con­tin­ue prepar­ing for se­vere weath­er as the hur­ri­cane sea­son, which be­gan on June 1, ends on No­vem­ber 30.