The Central Station Alarm Association reports that it is canceling its 2014 Annual Meeting, due to the impending threat of Hurricane Gonzalo. The National Hurricane Center has predicted that Gonzalo may become a Category 4 storm by Thursday, Oct. 16, and is on track to reach Bermuda on Friday — the day the CSAA meeting was scheduled to begin.

“Our hotel has advised us that it is entering ‘Hurricane Preparedness Status’ and is expecting a hit,” CSAA posted on its website.

“The CSAA leadership and staff regret that we will not be seeing our members in Bermuda for this year’s annual meeting. Bermuda appears to be in the direct path of Hurricane Gonzalo, a category 4 storm,” said Louis Fiore, CSAA International interim executive vice president.

This was to have been CSAA International’s 64^th annual meeting, with nearly 300 members scheduled to attend, the association said. “We did have to reschedule an annual meeting 20-plus years ago when a hotel in the Caribbean was damaged by a hurricane. But we had some time to move our meeting. A cancellation on such short notice is unprecedented and certainly most unfortunate,” Fiore said.

This would have been the last annual meeting for both CSAA President Jay Hauhn and CSAA Executive Vice President Steve Doyle, before retiring later this year from their respective positions — Hauhn retiring his position as ‎Chief Technology Officer, vice president of Industry Relations at Tyco Integrated Security.

“We are sending our best wishes to the people of Bermuda and any travelers unable to leave the island before and during the storm,” Fiore said.

CSAA is telling prospective attendees that their hotel reservations at the Fairmont Southampton Bermuda will be automatically canceled if made using the CSAA room block. Contact CSAA at 703-242-4670 for further information.