Interim Director of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Commander Stephen Russell partially activated the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) as the country braced for Tropical Storm Hanna.

On Saturday, August 30, Commander Russell galvanized a “core team” of personnel at NEMA’s headquarters in the Churchill Building to monitor Tropical Storm Hanna, which was projected to impact the Southeast Bahamas with heavy downpour.

Those islands include Acklins, Cooked Island, Mayaguana, Inagua and the Turks and Caicos Islands, where residents are being advised by the Bahamas Department of Meteorology to take the necessary precautions from massive flooding.

A tropical storm watch means that tropical storm conditions could be experienced in the mentioned islands of the watch area within 36 hours.

Residents in the islands under the watch should expect tropical storm force winds up to 145 miles, occasional heavy downpours, which will generate flooding in those areas.

Residents should begin to take the necessary precautions to secure their property and small craft should not venture far from port.

The team comprised representatives from the Department of Meteorology, the Department of Social Services, Ministry of Public Works and Transport, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of National Security.

Family Island administrators were also contacted for reports on their level of preparedness.

“NEMA stands by to respond to any form of disaster, natural or man made that might impact The Bahamas,” Commander Russell said.

In the NEOC, a “checklist of actions” is observed, when a weather system such as a tropical storm or a hurricane is about to impact any part of the country within a 72-hour period.