Police Patrolled Until Just Before Hurricane Hit

While the advice from the authorities prior to the passage of Hurricane Lisa was for everyone to move promptly to their shelter and stay indoors, as essential workers they had to ensure that people were not using the opportunity to commit crime. Police Commissioner Chester Williams said that officers were patrolling until just before the hurricane hit.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police

“We had to ensure that we put in place patrols to patrol the streets of this country until the very last hour before the storm would hit. That was exactly what we did. After the storm was over, even before NEMO gave the all-clear, the police were out on the streets making sure that we maintain presence to avoid those persons who may have wanted to use the opportunity to go and burglarize places, so the police were out there immediately after the storm. To some extent, we also assisted in cleaning or clearing the streets and making sure that the highways and the streets in the city were usable. So there was a lot that we did before and after the storm. As you’d know, during the storm the police have to take shelter just like any ordinary person. We don’t want our personnel to be hurt stupidly. So we took shelter while the storm passed and immediately thereafter we were out again making sure that we do what needed to be done to keep the country safe. We do have a few cases of burglaries but it’s not at an alarming rate and I must say again, that had a lot to do with the fact that the police maintained our presence on the streets. We do have a number of complaints about zinc or roof being missing. Several people lost their roof and I don’t know how you could determine which roof is yours. So that seems to be an issue.”