People of the Virgin Islands, good day and God’s blessings.

By grace of our Heavenly Father who gives us strength, we have been spared from serious damages that could have resulted from the passage of Tropical Storm Karen last night.

When I reflect on the images of potential flooding that we were expected to experience in Karen’s track, I thank God for the commitment and preparatory work carried out by many of our Government agencies to help mitigate impact on the lives and property of those who are in the hot spot areas.

Of course, a good part of the credit also go to you the people for doing your part to prepare and be ready.

As I would have shared yesterday, every one of you from my fellow Members of the House of Assembly, to those providers of essential and critical services who worked during the passage of Karen; to the private sector employers who took steps to protect their businesses and staff; all the way to the persons who simply reached out to their neighbours to see how they might lend a hand with preparations; each and every one of you contributed to our Territory coming safely through this storm.

I thank the teams from essential services, Works and Utilities for going out to assess the areas to ensure that we could return to a state of normalcy following the passage of Tropical Storm Karen.

I am aware that some areas are without electricity. As a reminder, the team at the BVI Electricity Corporation advised us that areas which present hazardous conditions will remain off until conditions are safe for the crew to address them. We want to ensure their safety as they complete the restoration process.

As you return to work and school today, please continue to be the vigilant citizens that you have shown yourselves to be so far this season. We are in the peak of what forecasters predicted from early would be an active Atlantic Hurricane Season.

We must continue to stay in preparedness mode. We must continue to monitor the advisories provided by the Department of Disaster Management so that we are able to plan ahead. Individually and collectively, we must continue to pray, petition and believe God for divine favour.

May God continue to bless and protect you the people of the Virgin Islands and this Territory.

Let us Be Ready and Stay Ready!

Thank you.