DASPA Officials pray that Dominica’s Airports are not hard hit during this 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season

​DASPA Officials pray that Dominica’s Airports are not hard hit during this 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. Assistant Airport Manager Cecelia Vital today noted that during the passage of Tropical Storm Erika, the Air and Sea Ports were extremely hard hit and that they were still in recovery mode.
 
She said, “… Sometimes when it comes to the weather, we try our best, but if we have an extreme hurricane, we can only pray that we do not get hard hit”. However, she highlighted some of the measures that have been put in place at Dominica’s Ports of Entries, to mitigate against weather systems. The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season officially began on 1st June 2017, and ends on 30th November 2017.
 
Vital highlighted some of the works which have been undertaken at the Douglas Charles Airport. She said “…. the river is being dredged, the runway is being built back better, and many things are being put in place at the Douglas Charles Airport…You can see the big boulders placed on the side of the rivers, because the main threat for us now, with the Douglas Charles Airport, is the river”.
 
She said DASPA officials are praying that, with the dredging and all the ongoing works, that the Airport will be able to handle the volume of water that comes in with a storm. “We’re hoping that Erika was a one-in-a-hundred-years event, and that there will not be another on”, Vital stated.
 
She mentioned further that even at the Roseau Ferry Terminal, it takes very little high seas to affect that area. She added that the Ferry Terminal has been reinforced, and the concrete backing was extended, to prevent boulders from the sea from going into the Terminal and destroying it, so that it can be reactivated in quick time and minimize any loss.
 
Vidal said DASPA officials are trying their best to see how they can really manage the ports, in order to minimize the impact or damages from any weather system.
 
She added that DASPA cannot afford to have any damage to the Canefield Airport by any storms, and prayed that the Canefield Airport and Runway are not affected by the River or the sea.