NHC gives low-pressure system near Jamaica 90% chance of developing

Minister of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport, Daryl Vaz, has announced that the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) is to activate its Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) on Sunday afternoon.

The move comes as the Meteorological Service has placed the island under a severe weather alert due to a broad area of disturbed weather that is presently across the south-central Caribbean Sea.

Additionally, in its Sunday afternoon update, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) in Miami, Florida said Invest 97L, the low-pressure system over the south-central Caribbean Sea, is "expected to become a tropical depression during the next day or two as it moves generally northward towards Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, and Cuba."

The NHC said formation chance through the next 48 hours remains high at 90 per cent.

Consequently, the NHC pointed out that interests in these countries, including Jamaica, should monitor the progress of the system, as tropical storm watches or warnings could be required later on Sunday.

"Regardless of the development, locally heavy rains are possible across Jamaica, Hispaniola and Cuba during the next few days," the NHC advised.

Daryl Vaz

Given those developments, Vaz took to X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday and stated that he has communicated with both telecommunications providers and JPS "to outline the expected service availability to customers during the next few days".

Added Vaz on that point: "The resilience and integrity of communications and the electricity grid must improve and remain reliable during weather events."

He said JPS has advised the ministry that steps are being taken to have contractors and emergency response teams in place.

"The @myJPSonline Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) will be activated as of this afternoon.

"JPSCo will also have meetings every 4 hrs (hours) to monitor the changes regarding the weather and its effect on the grid, with assurances to update the ministry and the public," Vaz stated.