NEOC activated, private operators urged to close businesses
As Hurricane Jerry approaches north of the territory, Acting Governor David Archer Junior has activated the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC).
He made the decision on Thursday after consulting with Premier Andrew Fahie and under the advice of the Department of Disaster Management (DDM).
The NEOC has been activated at Level 1.
“This means that critical response agencies in the NEOC Operations group will be monitoring the situation closely and be on standby for the possibility of increasing the activation level,” Archer stated.
Close business, private operators told
The Acting Governor is also urging all private sector business owners to follow government’s lead by closing all their respective businesses on Friday, September 20 in anticipation of Jerry, which has upgraded to a category two hurricane.
While the public service and all public schools will be closed, Acting Governor Archer is reminding members of the essential services that they will still be required to show up to work.
“These essential services, as defined by the BVI Labour Code, are the police service, prison service, water and sewerage services, Fire & Rescue Services, electricity generation and distribution services, telecommunication services, healthcare providers, transportation services and port services,” Archer, Jr said.
He also urged residents to learn from the lessons taught from the 2017 hurricanes by ensuring that they are fully prepared ahead of the storm.
Persons are being urged to continue to monitor all updates relating to the hurricane on the DDM’s social media pages, as a hurricane can change direction or windspeeds at any given time.
If emergency action is required, emergency alerts will be issued via radio and text message.
Copyright 2024 BVI News, Media Expressions Limited. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.
Private business owners, please do the right thing. The only people that should be on the road is emergency personel.
Dear Acting Governor.
I am working in the private sector and was told that I need to come to work. I have two kids and had to find someone this morning who was willing to baby sit. Can you please look into these private sectors.
Seriously? This is way over the top.
So…God forbid this storm changes path and it affects the BVI alot more than anticipated. What would y’all say then had Acting Governor not made that decision to close Business giving ppl that chance to better prepare. It is so hard to please people. If he did ..its a problem, If he didn’t..Still a problem…REALLY!!!
We will say this was an unusual event. As soon as a dark cloud past near the BVI we cannot be shutting our country.
This storm is passing 170 miles north of the BVI. I guess someone wanted to take a day off…
Wrong the storm is “predicted” to pass well north. This can and often do change at any time. Only government is closed and so are the schools and daycares. Some of these employers are just plain out evil, that’s all.
It have some bosses that refusing to let their staff go, not even half day. The government really need to address this.
The reason why some of these bosses don’t don’t their staff to go is because they know they are secure and they want to do work. So staff have to suffer. Sad
I must have missed something are we under a hurricane or tropical storm warning or watch??? Day off for nothing.
The potential lawsuit and bad publicity that any business will face if their employee gets injured or worse while at work or coming to work during a storm will be a burden that they would not want to carry. If you make it mandatory to come to work just ensure that your crystal ball is 100% certain.
I told all my staff if they wished to not come to work they would not get paid!
I then showed them online through various websites how the BVI we not in the forecast path, how the BVI was not under any watches or warnings.
If they wanted the day it was unpaid.
They all turned up to work this morning!
In Aug you are supposed to be prepared for hurricane season.. only need a few hours for final prep. For Government to shut down 36hrs before we even under watch or warning and then try to ram their stupidness down the private sector throats…. Civil Servants know they going to get pay no matter what.. come across to the private sector where you have to work for your money…
Closed shop early and went for a swim… lovely afternoon!
This individual have to learn to use his discretion more wisely
The decision to close government and schools was a good one. At least that took six thousand persons off of the road. To close businesses at the same time would not have been a good thing, and some businesses monitored the storm in order to determine earlier closing hours. I believe that all the businesses in the BVI did have their staff at heart and were keeping track of the storm on the internet and with DDM. I believe that conscientious business managers gave staff rotating shifts some time to battle down their homes and secure families with other relatives, and set up places on the premises in the event they are not able to make it back home. Thank God Jerry had other plans and did not come close.
It was a poor decision. Let’s be real. Businesses depend on government for many reasons to get things accomplish.