The Bahamas Department of Meteorology confirmed that its equipment and faculties are fully functioning, as The Bahamas is prepared to encounter a major hurricane this week.

Senior Deputy Director at the Department of Meteorology Jefferson Simmons made this confirmation during an interview with The Bahama Journal yesterday.

Many Bahamians are preparing for the storm as Hurricane Irma strengthened to a Category 3 storm on Sunday with meteorological experts saying it poses a serious threat for many days to come and persons from the Leeward Islands and Puerto Rico to The Bahamas and the U.S. East Coast should continue to monitor its progress very closely.

“Concerning the department and it’s preparation for the storm, all of our systems are a go we have a team of forecasters who are not committed to a shift and are going to ensure we get our messages out in a timely manner,” Mr. Simmons said.

“All of our equipment are up and running. We have recently installed a new Doppler Radar, one of four that were installed throughout the islands and they all are functioning and doing well.

“We in the Department of Meteorology are fully prepared to issue timely messages and timely warnings to the Bahamian people so we can keep them protected.”

Meteorological experts both locally and abroad have said Irma’s path is difficult to project because of its constant fluctuation in strength, but Simmons said if it does hit The Bahamas, this weekend would be the date.

“If Irma were to affect The Bahamas, it wouldn’t start to affect the Southeast Bahamas until around Friday evening, and in New Providence around Saturday, Sunday,” Mr. Simmons said.

“We’re still watching the progress and looking at the path that Irma is taking. From the department’s standpoint, we start to issue an alert once the storm is 60 hours out or two to three days.”

The department is also urging all residents to take the storm seriously and make all the necessary preparations.

“We encourage persons to take these hurricanes seriously and with this particular hurricane, we are pretty sure that it will be a major hurricane. We want to send a strong message to the Bahamian public to take this storm seriously,” Mr. Simmons said.

NEMA to Test Alert System

With the storm set to arrive this week, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) also advised the public that testing of a multi-agency public notification system will commence on Tuesday.

The initial test will involve the dissemination of a test alert by NEMA to all active cellular mobile subscribers in The Bahamas.

Captain Stephen Russell, director of NEMA, said this alerting system will add to already established protocols carried out before, during and in the immediate aftermath of any disaster posing a threat to the country.

This is also part of NEMA’s renewed mission “to build disaster resilient communities throughout our archipelago,” he said.