Ja­maica is brac­ing for the pas­sage of Trop­i­cal Storm Rafael (pre­vi­ous­ly Trop­i­cal De­pres­sion #18), shut­ting down gov­ern­ment busi­ness­es this af­ter­noon in an­tic­i­pa­tion of trop­i­cal storm con­di­tions that are ex­pect­ed to be­gin af­fect­ing the coun­try this evening.

The gov­ern­ment has ac­ti­vat­ed the Na­tion­al Emer­gency Op­er­a­tions Cen­tre (NEOC) fol­low­ing con­sul­ta­tions with the Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice of Ja­maica.

The Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter (OPM) said the NEOC is ready to co­or­di­nate pre­pared­ness and re­sponse mea­sures as the sit­u­a­tion evolves and that the NEOC will fo­cus on mo­bil­is­ing re­sources, en­sur­ing ef­fec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and main­tain­ing readi­ness to pro­vide sup­port and aid to com­mu­ni­ties that may be af­fect­ed.

“To­day, we are plac­ing every pos­si­ble re­source at the dis­pos­al of our emer­gency re­sponse teams to en­sure the safe­ty and well-be­ing of every Ja­maican. The Na­tion­al Emer­gency Op­er­a­tions Cen­tre is ful­ly mo­bilised and ready to re­spond to any de­vel­op­ments,” said Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter, Desmond McKen­zie.

“We urge all Ja­maicans to re­main vig­i­lant, stay in­formed through of­fi­cial up­dates, and to take all nec­es­sary pre­cau­tions to pro­tect them­selves and their loved ones,” McKen­zie added.

The au­thor­i­ties said that all es­sen­tial and emer­gency ser­vices, in­clud­ing hos­pi­tals and law en­force­ment, will con­tin­ue to op­er­ate as nor­mal.

A hur­ri­cane warn­ing is in ef­fect for the Cay­man Is­lands, while a hur­ri­cane watch is in ef­fect for Cuban provinces of Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, La Ha­bana, Mayabeque, Matan­zas, and the Isle of Youth.

A trop­i­cal storm warn­ing is in ef­fect for Ja­maica.

Cay­man Is­lands Deputy Gov­er­nor, Franz Man­der­son said Mon­day “we are now un­der a hur­ri­cane warn­ing…as [Trop­i­cal Storm Rafael] ap­proach­es our area. This warn­ing means that hur­ri­cane con­di­tions could im­pact us with­in 36 hours”.

He said on Sun­day, the Na­tion­al Haz­ard Man­age­ment Ex­ec­u­tive (NHME) met to re­view and pre­pare for the storm’s po­ten­tial im­pact.

“Every­one is urged to use to­day to com­plete prepa­ra­tions. Please stay in­formed on the lat­est de­vel­op­ments as this sys­tem con­tin­ues to in­ten­si­fy. Gov­ern­ment schools will re­main open to­day, but they will be closed to­mor­row, Tues­day, 5th No­vem­ber,” Man­der­son added.

The Mi­a­mi-based Na­tion­al Hur­ri­cane Cen­ter (NHC) in its lat­est bul­letin said the storm is 175 miles south of Kingston and 395 miles south-east of Grand Cay­man.

It has max­i­mum sus­tained winds of 45 miles per hour (75km/h) and is mov­ing to­ward the north near 9 mph (15km/h).

“Rafael is mov­ing to­ward the north near 9 mph (15 km/h). A north-west­ward mo­tion is ex­pect­ed to be­gin lat­er tonight and fore­cast to con­tin­ue for the next few days. On the fore­cast track, the sys­tem is ex­pect­ed to move near Ja­maica late tonight, be near or over the Cay­man Is­lands late Tues­day, and ap­proach Cu­ba on Wednes­day,” the NHC said.

“Steady to rapid strength­en­ing is now fore­cast and the sys­tem is fore­cast to be­come a hur­ri­cane on Tues­day,” it added.

The NHC is warn­ing that heavy rain­fall will im­pact ar­eas of the West­ern Caribbean with the heav­i­est rain­fall oc­cur­ring over Ja­maica and por­tions of Cu­ba through mid-week.

It said rain­fall to­tals be­tween three to six inch­es—with lo­cal­ly up to nine inch­es—are ex­pect­ed. In ad­di­tion, flood­ing and mud­slides could oc­cur over por­tions of Ja­maica and Cu­ba. —KINGSTON, Ja­maica (CMC)