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Henry Charles Usher, Minister of NEMO
"As a matter of fact cabinet was just briefed on Tuesday by the director of the of NEMO the, national emergency coordinator, and by the chief MET officer on what is expected is an above normal season. I think that the normal season calls for 14 named storms. They're expecting 16 or 17 named storms. I think the normal season calls for four major storms. I think they're expecting 5 or 6 major storms this, this particular season. So it will be an above-normal season. But I think what is important. Some weeks ago, NEMO actually launched an early warning system that there was a launch of that facility and that initiative, and that to me is critical because that is what you need. You need to be able to get that accurate information early enough so that you can have proper planning. Now, in terms of all of the different committees that NEMO oversees, those committees are headed by different government departments. We're in the process of getting all the reports from those committees so we can have our plan in place. Recently, we also launched The national disaster risk management plan. This is something that the NEMO and the legislation calls for it to be updated every year. We're happy to be able to have that comprehensive plan in place. Now, as you rightly said, the father of the nation was the first, minister responsible for NEMO. NEMO is now in its 25th year celebrating 25 years. And it's important that the public has confidence in NEMO, confidence in the work that it's doing, and confidence in all the different departments and organisations responsible for the disaster mitigation."

Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist
"Certainly In terms of the forecast, we have two agencies so far that have come out with their official forecast for the season. One of them is going for a normal season, which is 14 named storms, seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes. Then the Colorado State University, based on the numbers I recall, are going for 17 named storms that's tropical storm or higher, nine hurricanes and four major hurricanes. So if you look at those numbers and compare what we had last year, which is about the same, you're predicting something similar to last year, which was above normal but not super active, but yes, above normal. Now, in terms of our own local expectations, if it is a normal season, there's a higher chance that we can have a storm coming our way now. I always say to the public seasonal predictions are only useful to give you an overall picture of what's going to be happening. What you need to do is monitor the day to day activity. Look at the outlook for each day, look at what's developing, and of course, monitor what's coming towards us and of course, I always say focus on the official source of information and I don't say that because we are perfect I say this for one thing I said this morning on one of the talk shows, we have a stake in it. So if you go to another source, people on YouTube, I'm not going to call anybody name but that person does not have a stake. If he gives you a wrong forecast, he's not liable, right? You cannot go back to him and say, you know what You messed up, or get into a situation because he's not liable, but you could come back to us. And I know you will because the media will come back to us. So that is the reason why we say focus on your official source of information."

NEMO, the MET Service and the National Hydrological Service to host a media training session next week. And the National Disaster Preparedness and Response Advisory Committee will meet on 29th May in preparation for the 2025 Hurricane Season.