Coastal Watches/Warnings and Three-Day Track Forecast Cone of Tropical Storm Olga at 4:00 p.m. EST yesterday. - Contributed

Tropical Storm Olga will gradually lose strength as she impacts Jamaica's shores some time this afternoon. At 7:00 p.m. yesterday, the Tropical Storm was strengthening over southen Hispaniola and is expected to continue westward closer to Jamaica, the Meteorological Office said.

At 7:00 p.m. yesterday, the centre of Tropical Storm Olga was located near latitude 18.8 degrees North, longitude 69.5 degrees West. This was about 720 kilometres (445 miles) east of Morant Point, Jamaica, or 45 kilometres (30 miles) east of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Olga was moving west about 20 km/h (13 mph) and this general motion was expected to continue during the next 24 hours.

Speedy response

Yesterday, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), informed The Gleaner of preparations within the organisation for speedy response. These include the initiation of emergency-response activities and the implementation of plans to respond to the possible effects of the tropical storm. Aditionally, the ODPEM has advised key agencies to be on alert and parish disaster coordinators have been asked to put their parish disaster committees and shelter managers on alert.