GREAT BAY, Sint Maarten (DCOMM) – The Emergency Operations Center (EOC)/Office of Disaster Management (ODM), will be participating in the March 15 CARIBE WAVE 18 tsunami wave regional exercise.
The purpose of the exercise is to evaluate local tsunami response plans. The table top exercise will take place on Thursday morning at the Fire & Ambulance Department Conference room.
The exercise provides an opportunity for the corresponding emergency management organizations to exercise their operational lines of communications, review their tsunami response procedures, and promote tsunami preparedness.
The Intergovernmental Coordination Group (ICG) for the Tsunami and other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions at its eighth session (ICG/CARIBE EWS-VIII, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, 29 April–1 May 2013), decided to conduct tsunami exercises named CARIBE WAVE on an annual basis leaving each Member State to define its level of participation.
Three hypothetical scenarios have been developed for the Caribbean region.
The initial dummy messages for the three scenarios will be issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC), which acts as the CARIBE-EWS Tsunami Service Provider.
The ICG/CARIBE-EWS of UNESCO/IOC, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Caribbean Regional Stakeholders (CEPREDENAC, CDEMA, and EMIZA) are providing the framework for this exercise as a means for emergency responders throughout the Caribbean and adjacent regions to test and update tsunami response plans.