There is a sense of quiet diligence at the headquarters of the country’s Department of Emergency Management (DEM) at Warrens, St Michael, this afternoon.
Staff, volunteers and a few members of the Barbados Defence Force and the Barbados Fire Service are currently on site, moving around the facility, preparing for the passing of Tropical Storm Dorian.
Director of the DEM Kerry Hinds is meeting with her senior staff, hours after Government decided to bring forward the national shutdown time from noon to 10 a.m. 
Deputy Chief Robert Harewood said another advisory on Dorian would be provided before 3 p.m. after consulting with members of the Barbados Meteorological Services, about the 2 p.m. geographical location of the storm.
Members of the country’s media houses are also beginning to gather at the DEM in an effort to give citizens real-time updates on the tropical system that is expected to develop into a hurricane sometime in the next 48 hours.
Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica are currently under Tropical Storm warnings, Grenada is under a tropical storm watch and St Lucia is under a hurricane watch. (BA)
