Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit is returning to Dominica on Thursday as a strengthening Tropical Storm Tammy could become a hurricane by the end of the weekend.
Skerrit, the chairman of the 15-member regional integration grouping, CARICOM, had been co-chairing the first-ever summit of Canada and CARICOM leaders that began in Ottawa on Wednesday.
A government statement said Skerrit is to “cut short his stay in Canada and return to Dominica on Thursday…as Tropical Storm Tammy approaches the Lesser Antilles”.
A Tropical Storm warning is in effect for Dominica, Barbados, and the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, and the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said that the storm is strengthening as it approaches the Lesser Antilles.
It said that Tammy is about 460 miles east of the Windward Islands with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour (mph) and that additional watches and warnings will likely be required later on Thursday.
The government statement quoted the Met office as saying that Dominica could begin to feel the impact of the storm by Friday “with an increase in showers and thunderstorm activity which could result in widespread flooding”.
