The hurricane should “pass as close as possible to or over the Guadeloupean archipelago on Saturday during the day,” Météo-France said.
Since midnight local time (6 a.m. in Paris), Saturday October 21, Guadeloupe has been on cyclone red alert. “This alert level targets phenomena with a very significant impact”, declared the prefect, Xavier Lefort, in a press release as Hurricane Tammy approached. He called on the population of the archipelago to join “a shelter” and to “respect all recommendations from the authorities”.
The list of safe shelters, which everyone can join if they wish, was communicated early Friday evening and transmitted here by La 1ère.
Classified category 1 since Friday 11 a.m. local time, Hurricane Tammy directly threatens Guadeloupe, where it has already generated strong winds, which reached at 5 p.m. “120 km/h with gusts to 148 km/h”, according to Météo-France, as well as heavy rain, which will persist until Sunday. The hurricane should “pass as close as possible to or on the Guadeloupean archipelago on Saturday during the day”, specifies Météo-France.
Located ahead of the cyclone, Martinique was hit by showers on Friday afternoon, then placed on orange alert for wave-submersion by Météo-France. The Atlantic coast of Martinique should be the most affected by the passage of the hurricane, with average depths between 3 meters and 4 meters, and “maximum heights from 4m50 to 6m”, specifies the forecaster.
Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélémy will go into red alert during the day
Tammy should also continue her trajectory “not far from Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy during the night from Saturday to Sunday”, according to the same source. These two islands, located in the northwest of Guadeloupe, will go into cyclone red alert on Saturday at noon local time, the prefecture announced.
Since Friday evening, Guadeloupe has been at a standstill. All weekend events were canceled, planes were grounded and maritime connections between the islands were suspended.
Human resources as well as water stocks have been prepositioned on the island of La Désirade, and also in the municipalities of eastern Grande-Terre, such as Sainte-Anne, Le Moule and Saint-François, to compensate for the inevitable outages in the event of severe bad weather. The approach to maritime installations (ports, anchorages, etc.) must also be secure, in particular because of the risk of submersion, Météo-France currently forecasting depths of up to 5 meters.