Basseterre, St. Kitts, March 25, 2014 (SKNIS): The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is making preparations to test the readiness of public and private sector entities, along with residents of St. Kitts and Nevis with a Tsunami Exercise on Wednesday (March 26).
In an interview with the St. Kitts and Nevis Information Service, retired Superintendent of Police and Tsunami Exercise Coordinator Ivor Blake explained that this type of natural hazard is of particular interest to the Caribbean because the region sits on the rim of two major tectonic plates and most settlements on the islands are located in coastal areas, some even at or below sea level.
Mr. Blake went on to explain that after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the Chile Tsunami of 2010 and the Japan Tsunami of 2011 many lessons have been learned in dealing with Tsunamis.
UNESCO and the International Intergovernmental Commission (IIC) have decided to broaden the tsunami readiness to all countries, including territories in the Caribbean and is leading the charge on this exercise in this hemisphere.
“To date over 100,000 different entities and agencies have signed on to participate in this exercise in this hemisphere” said Blake. “In St. Kitts and Nevis the exercise will be conducted as a table top exercise and will test the response of the disaster management responders in the Federation. The aim in our case is to test the communication aspect of disaster readiness in our state and how information is received, used and disseminated.”
It is felt that in the event of a Tsunami, one of the important acts is to get the necessary information to the most vulnerable people and those most at risk in a timely manner.
The present alert protocol suggests that information of an impending Tsunami would be relayed to St. Kitts and Nevis via email or fax from regional and international monitoring agencies to the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force.
In this week’s application, a series of injects at certain intervals would trigger responses. Many Government departments and private sector stakeholders have been invited to participate.
Two schools have also been identified to play key roles in the undertaking. The ultimate goal of government is to devise a comprehensive evacuation plan for both islands. In addition, there are already plans being formulated to hold similar exercises in different parts of the Federation to test different aspects of readiness for tsunamis or other possible disasters.
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