A special seminar on hurricane preparedness for businesses is to be held.

Aimed at senior executives, the seminar will update attendees on how the island is preparing for this year’s hurricane season.

Steve Cosham, national disaster and public events co-ordinator, from the Ministry of National Security, said: “In 2016, we concentrated on communications and the communications from the Emergency Measures Organisation out to the public went better than in previous years and we are planning to make further improvements upon that for 2017.”

The event, organised by the Insitute of Risk Management and targeted at chief risk officers, chief operating officers and office managers, will also feature Kimberley Zuill, director of the Bermuda Weather Service, who will share predictions for this year’s storm season.

Ms Zuill said: “Social media is now a mainstream form of communication with a community and the BWS Facebook site was updated at least every half-hour in Nicole.

“The combination of this candid visual explanation and BWS giving a weather update every hour on the bottom of the hour on the emergency broadcast station 100.1FM assisted with informing the public and easing fears”

Ms Zuill added: “A new category called ‘Potential Tropical Cyclones’ has been introduced by the NHC and all national weather services in our region.”

And she said she would discuss the implications of the new category and whether it will improve forecasting and its impact on businesses.

The seminar will be held on Thursday, May 18 between 8.30am and 10am at Zurich Insurance, Wellesley House, Pitts Bay Road, Hamilton.

Anyone interested in attending should contact the IRM Bermuda Chapter at irmbermuda@gmail.com.