(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) His Excellency Sir Edwin Carrington on Friday held his final press conference as Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), pointing to the gains made and challenges faced by the regional grouping over the past year, and charging the media to enhance its role in getting the populace involved in the Community.

The past year, Secretary-General Carrington said, was one of "great difficulty" for the Community. The year began tragically with the earthquake in Haiti, and recorded the death of

Note: The last fact sheet was dated October 8, 2010.

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

- On October 27, the nineteenth named storm of this hurricane season, Tomas, formed off the northeastern coast of South America. After developing into a tropical storm, Tomas made landfall in Barbados on October 30. Tomas became a Category One hurricane as it approached St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where it collapsed bridges and destroyed houses, crops, roads, and other infrastructure. On November 4, the storm passed Jamaica as a tropical storm and caused little

DESTACADOS:

- El CARIBE: Tomás dejó pérdidas en Santa Lucia, San Vicente y las Granadinas, Barbados y Haití.

- AMéRICA CENTRAL: Fuertes lluvias mantienen a Costa Rica y Panamá bajo alerta, hay más de 5,000 afectados.

- BOLIVIA: la sequía agudiza la crisis alimentaria en Bolivia.

Message:

Event

Tomas impacted the CDEMA Participating States of Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Barbados, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines between October 29 and 31, 2010 and caused significant losses and damage to Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Excessive rainfall and high winds have resulted in damage to the housing stock, agriculture sector, road infrastructure, downed power lines and disruption to the utilities sector.

The areas severely affected in St. Vincent and the Grenadines are Park Hill, Chester Cottage, Sandy Bay and Byera

KINGSTON (JIS)

Friday, November 05, 2010

Hurricane Tomas forecast track

The Meteorological Service of Jamaica has lifted the Tropical Storm Warning for Jamaica, as Hurricane Tomas moves further away from the island.

In addition, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) has given the all clear for non-essential workers to resume duties today.

The Met Service has advised that Jamaica is now outside of the range of tropical storm force winds associated with the hurricane and, therefore, the threat of such conditions no longer exists.

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:35:23 -0500

000

WTNT31 KNHC 052035

TCPAT1

BULLETIN

HURRICANE TOMAS ADVISORY NUMBER 31

NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL212010

500 PM EDT FRI NOV 05 2010

...CENTER OF TOMAS APPROACHING GREAT INAGUA IN THE BAHAMAS...

SUMMARY OF 500 PM EDT...2100 UTC...INFORMATION

----------------------------------------------

LOCATION...20.3N 73.8W

ABOUT 90 MI...145 KM E OF GUANTANAMO CUBA

ABOUT 70 MI...110 KM SW OF GREAT INAGUA ISLAND

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...75 MPH...120 KM/HR

PRESENT MOVEMENT...NE OR 35 DEGREES AT 14 MPH...22 KM/HR

Office of the Prime Minister

Issued by: The Meteorological Service, Jamaica

Thursday, November 04, 2010

A TROPICAL STORM WARNING remains in effect for Jamaica as the centre of Tomas starts to move towards the north, closer to the eastern end of the island. This means that tropical storm conditions, including possible sustained wind speeds of 34-63 knots or 63-117 km/h, are expected in 36 hours or less.

At 10:00 a.m. the centre of Tropical Storm Tomas was located near Latitude 16.3 degrees North, Longitude 76.1

As you know, we have been placed on Storm Warning as Tropical Storm Tomas nears Jamaica. The Met Office has advised that we should expect to experience storm conditions in sections of the island within the next few hours.

We have been tracking this system for the past week as it strengthened, weakened, strengthened again and made its way across the Caribbean. It did considerable damage in the eastern Caribbean, especially in St. Lucia where 14 persons lost their lives. Currently a tropical storm, Tomas is expected to pass as close as 35 miles off the

The Meteorological Service is reporting that Tropical Storm Tomas continues to move westward over the south-central Caribbean Sea and is still expected to strengthen within the next 48 hours.

At 10:00 a.m. the centre of Tropical Storm Tomas was located near Latitude 13.5 degrees North, Longitude 72.6 degrees West, about 630 km (390 miles) southeast of Morant Point, Jamaica or 570 km (355 miles) south of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Tomas is moving towards the west near 17 km/h (10 mph) and maximum sustained winds remain near 85 km/h (50 mph),