NATIONAL OFFICE OF DISASTER SERVICES

Press Release - March 22nd, 2017. The annual tsunami exercise, Caribe Wave which targeted 26 educational institutions on Tuesday, has highlighted the need for greater significance to be placed on disaster management in the nation’s schools.

The activity was undertaken by the National Office of Disaster Services (NODS) as part of an international event called “Caribe Wave”. It provides an opportunity for emergency management organizations to exercise their operational lines of communications, review their tsunami response procedures and promote tsunami preparedness.

This year, the exercise focused on primary, secondary and tertiary institutions that fall within the tsunami impact zone. Approximately six thousand students and teachers took part.

Caribe Wave has further demonstrated the importance of schools practising various drills and developing their disaster management plans. “It was a needed exercise and it was a privilege to work along with NODS because you never really know what can happen. It was a useful exercise that we can build on”, said Colin Greene, Principal of the Princess Margaret School. One thousand and ninety-three (1,093) students and ninety-seven teachers from that school evacuated to the Antigua Recreation Grounds.

Director of NODS Philmore Mullin says a report, along with recommendations, will be submitted to government and education officials.

Caribe Wave 2017 is sponsored by the UNESCO/IOC Intergovernmental Coordination Group for Tsunami and Other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), the institution of the Central American Integration System for natural disaster and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).