The Office of Disaster Management participates in CARIBE WAVE 2019 exercise. The exercise is carded for today, March 14th 2019.
The ODM will test its operational lines of communications with major stakeholders responsible for emergency response. Staff of the ODM and one CERT volunteer will assist with the exercise. One school on the west coast will also participate in the said exercise.
The purpose of this exercise is to practice and evaluate the operations of the CARIBE-EWS Tsunami Warning System along the coasts of the Caribbean and adjacent regions. It provides an opportunity to evaluate PTWC CARIBE-EWS products and the corresponding readiness of emergency management organizations and communities at risk including operational lines of communications, tsunami response procedures, and evacuation procedures, and promote tsunami preparedness at community level.
Regular exercising of response plans is critical to maintain readiness for an emergency. For the first time, this exercise will allow an evaluation of both tsunami products associated with volcanic events and Member State/Territory response plans for tsunami crises associated with volcanic events.
The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) will issue one initial dummy message on 14 March 2019 at 14:00 UTC, and disseminate over all standard Tsunami Warning Centre broadcast channels. This dummy message shall be issued to test communications with Tsunami Warning Focal Points (TWFPs) and National Tsunami Warning Centres (NTWC), and to start the exercise. As of 14:05 UTC, the PTWC will send by email the simulated tsunami products to officially designated TWFPs and NTWCs according to the chosen scenario. Each TWFP/ NTWC will decide if and how to disseminate the messages within their area of responsibility. In cases where a Member State does not inform the PTWC and CTWP, the organizers will decide on the scenario.
THE ODM WISHES TO INFORM ALL THAT THIS IS A DRILL EXERCISE AND IT IS NOT THE REAL THING.
