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OAS Secretary General Follows Dean on its Path, as he Calls For Coordination

Contact: Rose Marie Harris

Monday August 20, 2007 - The Secretary General of the Organization of American States José Miguel Insulza, expressed his solidarity with the governments and people on the path of Hurricane Dean. “The entire Inter-American community is monitoring Hurricane Dean, and stands committed to provide assistance to those whose lives have been affected in its path,” Insulza said. As the first major category storm of the 2007 season, Hurricane Dean has already caused extensive damage and losses of lives in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, and has further reached other Small Island States to the southeast, like Saint Lucia, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It is now moving steadily west over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, after becoming a Category 5, and may regain strength when it hits sea again over the Bay of Campeche on Tuesday night, the US National Hurricane Center reported.
 

“Extreme events such as hurricanes and earthquakes will continue to bring death and losses in personal properties, national and global economies. However, we can reduce the devastation caused by these events, by increasing the resilience of those most vulnerable, by adopting better building codes and zoning policies and plans, and protecting roads and communication networks, water and sanitation systems, and our natural resources. Despite the damages we have seen, the actions of governments in emergency planning and preparedness have lowered the potential damages from Hurricane Dean, and underscores that strong preventative measures do have tangible pay-backs,” Secretary General Insulza added.
 

Before the 2007 hurricane season started, meteorologists expected seventeen tropical storms and hurricanes to pound the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico and the United States eastern seaboard, by the time it ends on November 30th. Of these, nine storms are likely to be named hurricanes, of which as many as five will be Category 3 or higher. Predictions are no more than “best guesses” based on data and statistical probability. Predictions draw on observations of thousands of data run in highly sophisticated models that weigh the average sea-surface temperatures in the mid-Atlantic basin—the single most important variable in predicting seasonal storms—as well as variables such as changes to El Nino conditions. Before June 30th, there was a 64 percent chance that at least one major hurricane would hit the United States, and it looks like Dean could fulfill this prediction early in the season. The odds were higher for a major hurricane to occur in the Caribbean, and Dean already met the odds.
 

The Department of Sustainable Development of the OAS and its Inter-American Network for Disaster Mitigation (INDM,) is working in cooperation with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UN/ISDR), and other sister organizations to coordinate efforts in the region.

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