Tsunami Excersize

April 16, 2014

Over the next couple of months, the National Office of Disaster Services (NODS) will intensify its hazard awareness and training programme following a region-wide tsunami exercise held Wednesday 26th March.

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The disaster office will also re-examine the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) relating to the continuation of government, the security of relief items specifically water and energy in the next couple of weeks and plans by shipping agents as they relate to vessels in port.
The Caribe Wave annual activity was to assist tsunami preparedness efforts in the Caribbean and adjacent regions, including the United States and Canadian East coasts, testing particularly their communication processes. It was designed by the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami and other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean.

Antigua and Barbuda’s scenario was the simulation of the 1755 tsunami generated by a magnitude 8.5 earthquake off Portugal. According to Director of NODS Philmore Mullin, the exercise allowed NODS to test specific aspect of the SOP’s. “The country’s objectives were to look at the warning protocols, re-examine those areas that are most vulnerable and to establish the parameter for evacuating schools on the north-western side of the island”.

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As part of the exercise, a class at the Villa Primary School was evacuated. “While we now have an estimated time of how long it will take to take these students from one area to the next we have to put that in the context of the number of schools in the area, in relation to the number of persons living in that particular area who may all be heading to the same location. Added to that is the issue of traffic and traffic management”, said Mullin.

Mullin says a major concern would be a localised tsunami where only nearby islands are affected and between two to 15 minutes are allowed for evacuation as opposed to a tele-tsunami which would affect further areas and give several hours for evacuation.

There is no tsunami warning system operating in the Caribbean however if an earthquake that can trigger a tsunami occurs that may affect the Caribbean that information will be provided by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii.

In the past 500 years, there have been ten confirmed earthquake-generated tsunamis in the Caribbean Basin with four causing fatalities. An estimated 350 people were killed by these events.