The prevailing belief among citizens that “God is a Trini” is posing some challenges to the Office of Disaster Preparedness Management (ODPM) in its disaster preparedness education drive. This was disclosed yesterday by Vijai Mahabir, ODPM operations manager, at the commission of enquiry into the July 1990 attempted overthrow of the Government by Jamaat al Muslimeen rebels.
The youthful Mahabir was being questioned at the time by commission deputy chairman Sir Richard Cheltenham, who pointed out that in his country of Barbados, the younger population, which had never experienced a major natural disaster did not take hurricane warnings seriously. “Yes, that is a great problem (here), the attitude that God is a Trini. We have some challenges getting the message across to the population,” Mahabir said.
He said the ODPM had to counter this lethargic response by persisting with education. “We have to start with the kids...It’s important to have a disaster response programme in the school curriculum,” he said. Tobago, on the other hand, is much more prepared than Trinidad for a disaster because Tobagonians do not believe that God is a Tobagonian, commissioner Eastlyn McKenzie said.
“We tell the story of the experience of the 1963 Hurricane Flora to children and try to let the population know God is not a Tobagonian,” she said. McKenzie said Tobago newspapers carry a list of shelters when there’s a hurricane warning and noted every school or building that is to be used as a shelter has a sign. The shelters have also been tried out to see if there are enough cots and water, she said.
Mahabir said there is a national disaster plan in T&T but there is a critical need to test it. “There are well-orchestrated plans but there is a need to test them with simulation exercises...This must be done on a regular basis,” he said. Mahabir said the ODPM does regular briefings with state agencies like the Telecommunications Services of T&T, the Water and Sewerage Authority and the T&T Electricity Commission.
He said the regional corporations have done tsunami preparedness exercises with some schools, where students were actually picked up and transported elsewhere, and the exercise was successful in that gaps were identified. He said the ODPM is involved in a plan to install sirens to warn of a tsunami or other disaster but this may not come into effect until by the end of the year.
Emergency support services are in place in the regiment and the Air Guard has even done some simulation exercises, he said, but there is an urgent need to test the Port-of-Spain egress plan. “We do have a Port-of-Spain egress plan to deal with traffic, but we need to test it,” Mahabir said. He said the Public Transport Service Corporation’s disaster preparedness plan includes having nine emergency buses for Port-of-Spain and seven for San Fernando.
The 15th session of the enquiry ended yesterday with no fixed date for the next and final session. The commission has to get feedback from witnesses before a date can be set.