IN THE MIDDLE OF A TROPICAL STORM

A Storm is Currently Happening in my Country while I am trying to introduce myself.

As I am writing this post a tropical storm warning has been issued for Trinidad and Tobago, as well as Grenada.

I am 24 years of age, and a recent graduate at the University of the West Indies. I live in Trinidad and Tobago, and today, June 19th, 2017, is one of our national holidays, Labor Day. But instead of relaxing and enjoying our time off from work, we are kept indoors, awaiting our fate in the next few hours because we have been issued a storm warning. Yes, we made sure to get our "storm essentials" such as batteries for our lights and radio and canned foods to last us the rest of the week.

Every year, my country is always issued a storm or hurricane warning, during (as my country like to call it) “Hurricane Season”. Hurricane season is usually from June - November; usually peaking around August. Each and every time we receive storm warnings, the storm just swoops and swings upward and hit the other islands (Haiti, Cuba, Bahamas, Jamaica) leaving Trinidad and Tobago (Trinidad mostly) unscathed.

But no, this year the storm warning seems like it may actually affect us this year. And we as a country are not prepared. As I am writing this, heavy winds are howling outside, beating my windows and thunderstorms so loud my bed is shaking.

Because we have gotten away so many years, the people in my country tend to take environmental issues very lightly. I have literally seen with my own eyes people throw their trash out the car while the car is moving. As well as, seeing people dump a whole washing machine at the side of the road. talk about litter and pollution! If you’ve been here, you’d understand what I am talking about. It is so bad, that if there’s drizzle for 20 minutes, everywhere becomes flooded (well not everywhere, but you get what I mean).

And on top of that, this country has so many wooden and weak houses with unstable, rusty, galvanized roofs. They estimate that the wind speed would reach 65 km/hr with higher gusts. I am afraid that so many people may become homeless.