Weather forecasters issued tropical storm warnings Friday for Barbados, Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines as Tropical Storm Bret bore down on the eastern Caribbean.
St. Lucia Prime Minister Philip Pierre has encouraged the island’s residents to “Protect your lives, property and livelihoods.”
The National Hurricane Center said early Friday that the center of Bret is over the Eastern Caribbean Sea, resulting in “heavy rains and strong winds over portions of the Winward Islands.”
Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, encouraged people to go to a government shelter if they believed their homes could not withstand the strong winds and heavy rains.
Rainfall from Bret could reach 7.5-15 centimeters and possibly reach as high as 25 centimeters “across portions of the Lesser Antilles from Guadeloupe south through St. Vincent and the Grenadines, including Barbados,” according to the NHC.
Information collected from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft revealed that Bret is moving with maximum sustained winds near 95 kph. NHC says Bret is expected to gradually weaken and will “likely dissipate” over the Caribbean Sea this weekend.
