Ex­pect trop­i­cal storm con­di­tions from 6 pm, as Po­ten­tial Trop­i­cal Cy­clone Two (PTC2) pass­es near or over por­tions of the south­ern Wind­ward Is­lands this evening.

That’s the lat­est word from the Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice (TTMS), as the coun­try con­tin­ues to be un­der a Trop­i­cal Storm Warn­ing.

The Met Ser­vice re­minds the pub­lic that a Storm Warn­ing means that trop­i­cal storm con­di­tions—sus­tained winds of 63 km/h or greater—are like­ly over the warn­ing area with­in 36 hours or less.

In its lat­est ad­vi­so­ry, the Met Ser­vice re­ports that at 11:00 am this morn­ing, the cen­tre of Po­ten­tial Trop­i­cal Cy­clone Two (PTC2) was lo­cat­ed near 9.8ºN lat­i­tude 57.5ºW lon­gi­tude or about 380 km East of Trinidad.  PTC2 is mov­ing to­ward the west at 37 km/h and a west to north-west­ward mo­tion is ex­pect­ed over the next few days. 

The ad­vi­so­ry states:

“Ahead of the sys­tem, iso­lat­ed af­ter­noon heavy show­ers/thun­der­storms can de­vel­op, which can pro­duce gusty winds in ex­cess of 55 km/h. As PTC2 moves over the is­lands this evening in­to tonight, it is like­ly to pro­duce pe­ri­ods of heavy to in­tense show­ers and/or thun­der­storms that can re­sult in rain­fall ac­cu­mu­la­tions in ex­cess of 100 mm in some ar­eas and wind gusts in ex­cess of 70km/h. These wind gusts are ca­pa­ble of break­ing tree branch­es, dis­plac­ing un­se­cured roofs and loose out­door ob­jects, and can even top­ple over un­healthy trees. Heavy rain­fall can pro­duce pond­ing and lo­cal­ized flash flood­ing.”

Per­sons in coastal ar­eas and with ma­rine in­ter­ests are be­ing urged ex­er­cise ex­treme cau­tion.

“Ma­rine ac­tiv­i­ties can be ad­verse­ly af­fect­ed, as sea con­di­tions will be­come rough with wave heights reach­ing oc­ca­sion­al­ly above 3m in open wa­ters and chop­py in shel­tered ar­eas,” the Met Ser­vice warns, adding that “the risk of land­slides/land­slips is like­ly in ar­eas so prone.”

The coun­try is be­ing urged to pre­pare to pro­tect lives, liveli­hood, and prop­er­ty, and ad­here to the fol­low­ing in­struc­tions.

“Plan your evac­u­a­tion to a shel­ter if it be­comes nec­es­sary. Al­ways have emer­gency sup­plies of food and wa­ter on stand­by. Se­cure loose out­door items and live­stock. Do not wade or dri­ve through flood wa­ters. Pre-po­si­tion sand­bags if your area floods and mon­i­tor riv­er lev­els. Those with ma­rine in­ter­est should ex­er­cise ex­treme cau­tion. Fol­low the in­struc­tions of Gov­ern­ment Of­fi­cials.”

The Met Ser­vice says up­dates will be made avail­able at its web­site (www.metof­fice.gov.tt/) and that of the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (www.odpm.gov.tt), and their re­spec­tive so­cial me­dia por­tals.