It is still a few months away from the 2011 Atlantic Hurricane season, but with or without Professor William Gray’s predictions this season will be like no other.

With the damage assessment from Hurricane Earl still under way, the unofficial report card for the agriculture sector is that the Category Two system decimated almost half of Antigua’s crops and the total dollar loss to farmers has been put at a conservative estimate of a half million dollars.

It should be business as usual in Antigua & Barbuda today after the approaching Tropical Storm Fiona lost much of its kick yesterday evening and was downgraded to a minimal storm.

Members of the national emergency response system have come in for high praise for their work during the passage of Hurricane Earl Sunday night into Monday morning.

The Head of the National Office of Disaster Services (NODS) is mulling an apparent need for stronger legislation to back the body after a principal refused to open a school designated as a national shelter.

Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer yesterday urged residents to keep a close watch on Tropical Storm Fiona, which formed in the Northern Leeward islands.

Several of the over 350 residents who took refuge in 35 emergency shelters across Antigua & Barbuda, due to the passage of Hurricane Earl, were by late yesterday either returning home or preparing to do so.

The VC Bird International Airport will be officially closed at 3:45 Pm today, Sunday 29 August. The last scheduled flight departure will be the American Airlines 1880 to Miami.

The outer rainbands of Hurricane Earl are approaching Antigua & Barbuda as the system continues on a track that will see it reaching the country later this evening and lasting into tonight and the early hours of tomorrow.

Tropical storm Earl has now attained hurricane status and the National Office of Disaster Services (NODS) is strongly advising residents to bring their Hurricane Preparedness plans to a speedy conclusion.