ONE DAY after a local preacher warned Barbadians not to let the hurricane season catch them “like a thief in the night”, authorities revealed it would be at least two weeks before the country knows which buildings can be used as shelters.
The Atlantic hurricane season started on Sunday, and yesterday the country’s chief shelter warden disclosed that while an assessment of shelters had been completed they would have to wait at least two weeks to know which had been approved and into which category they fell.
Chief Education Officer Laurie King, who also holds the chief shelter warden post, told a two-day workshop on shelter management that the results of the assessment were still being formulated. He said the evaluation looked at the capacity, the structural strength of the building and the availability of water supply, among other criteria, and the booklet containing the information should be available in about two weeks.
King said he could not speak to the full list of shelters for this year, or whether any had been removed or new ones added.
