Hurricane experts from across the Americas are gathering in Bermuda this week to prepare for the forthcoming storm season.

Delegates from 26 nations are attending a series of forums at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess for the 32nd session of the Regional Association IV Hurricane Committee.

Bermuda is hosting the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) event for the first time, with visiting representatives from the US, Canada, Caribbean, Central and South America.

A delegate from Haiti is also in attendance. Yesterday the Hurricane Committee discussed plans to bolster that country's defences in the wake of January's devastating earthquake.

At Monday's opening ceremony Koji Kuroiwa of the WMO said: "The present session of the Hurricane Committee gives a great opportunity for WMO to take an action for coordinating an immediate support to Haiti."

The committee will also hold a Bermuda hurricane seminar this week with representatives of the international insurance industry. Mr. Kuroiwa, who is based in Geneva, said he hoped this would lead to "better visibility of the WMO in the global efforts for disaster risk reduction".

He told The Royal Gazette Bermuda's isolated location in the north-east also made it "very important for meteorological observations of atmospheric conditions".

"The storms develop and change as they go towards the north so the observation data from Bermuda is very important for the wider region as a whole," he said.

Bermuda Weather Service director Mark Guishard told delegates: "Our work as a body through the decades has led to coordinated efforts in the reduction and mitigation of risks from hurricanes on a regional scale, that sets an example for other regions and jurisdictions.

"Nonetheless, our work continues into the next decade, with the spectre of climate change affecting the frequency, intensity and impacts of hurricanes; strengthened liaisons with other regional bodies tasked with disaster risk reduction; impacts from other natural disasters, affecting the ability to warn against the threat we are primarily concerned with, and in some instances enhancing that threat; and new improvements in forecasting technology, allowing us to give more confident warnings against damaging impacts with longer lead times."

Senator David Burch, chairman of Bermuda's Emergency Measures Organisation (EMO), said Hurricane Fabian in 2003 had awoken the Island from an era of complacency into implementing better communication systems.

"Fabian for us was a wake-up call, with the loss of four lives.

"Our [EMO] has strengthened considerably since Hurricane Fabian's impact, and when combined with the great improvements in the forecasting arena in recent years, this has been a recipe for success.

"A forecast without decisive action is a wasted effort and if we, as emergency planners and decision makers, do not inform the forecasters of what is useful information, there is the danger of a fatal disconnect.

"One of the lessons learned on the EMO is that communications between emergency managers, the meteorological service, government departments, businesses and the public are equally important during the pre-season stage as before, during and after the onset of any impact.

"Communications can make all the difference between a prepared and safe public able to take a storm in its stride and a disaster that brings major economic and human losses."