Dr Stephen Ramroop, CEO of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) says T&T is “60 per cent ready” if a natural disaster hits this country. However, he said, a lot of it is based on the readiness of the responder and not the population.
Interviewed on Thursday, Ramroop said, “I think we are about 60 per cent ready and a lot of it is based on the responder readiness and not on population readiness. The population has to get their disaster bags ready. And every community should get ready for the “big earthquake” and that is why they have to pack their disaster bags.”
Asked about ODPM’s egress plan (June 13, 2011) which targeted three evacuation exercises for Tobago, Port-of-Spain and San Fernando, as part of its disaster preparedness initiative, Ramroop said, “Those plans have all been developed. They have all been shared by the different stakeholders. We launched the plans in 2011. We have tested the plans between 2012 and 2013. They were tested with a number of drills and tabletop exercises. We have all the relevant first responders.”
Asked why he felt citizens had adopted a laissez faire attitude to disasters Ramroop said, “We work with public education, information and workshops. We work with people to convince them they are at risk. We use the politicians. It is a multi-faceted approach. It’s just understandable because they have not been exposed to severe disasters. They don’t have recollection of that kind of fear.”
He also said a press conference was scheduled for tomorrow at 10 am at ODPM’s Tacarigua office to give details about preparations. He said, “We will the explaining all the readiness next week.”
Enough food, water for first responders
Asked whether we have enough food and water for T&T in case of a disaster, Ramroop said: “We have enough food and water to supply the first responders. But we will not be able to stock food and water for the entire country. We have asked the corporations to develop their resiliency plans by working with community leaders, church leaders and all the people to get together to provide food and water.”
Ramroop said, “It is their responsibility to ensure they have signed an MOA/ MOU with the private sector to provide food, water and shelter for high-risk communities. Therefore, pharmacies, groceries and supermarkets can become the suppliers of food and water in the event of a massive disaster.”
Ramroop also said the ODPM will be working to secure critical installations in warehouses and command centres. He said, “When a disaster occurs, food and water isn’t stored in one warehouse but is spread across the country. It’s the science of the management of logistics. We want to ensure the buildings are disaster resilient to withstand a major earthquake and hurricane force winds.
We have asked local government authorities to visit and work with them to develop their contingency plan so they can withstand the onslaught of a disaster and stand ready to supply goods and services. The ODPM will work with first responders and all the command centres.”
In a previous interview (June 13, 2011), Ramroop had said that if food supply runs low, regional and international support through humanitarian operations committees will be willing to help. Among those willing to lend a helping hand with medical kits, relief items and shelter was the United Nations.
Ramroop said he will be speaking at the Diego Martin Regional Corporation at 10 am today. Then he will heading out to affected communities with officials from the corporation, Red Cross officials and volunteers to distribute inflatable bags, first aid kits and flyers. They will also speak to the residents about disaster preparedness and provide tips on how to use the inflatable bags.
T&T not adequately prepared
People in T&T have a laid back approach when it comes to preparing for natural disasters. According to Prof John Agard, head of the Department of Life Sciences at the University of the West Indies (UWI), St Augustine, people in T&T believe that natural disasters will never happen to us and that inhibits our level of preparedness.
Agard, former head of the Environmental Management Authority said, “We have not been subjected to a major hurricane since we are outside the belt. We are not adequately prepared like other Caribbean countries. We believe it will never happen to us. That attitude has inhibited our level of preparedness. The ODPM is trying. Given the kinds of emergencies, they are limited to floods and not the full-scale brunt of a hurricane...for a long time... or an earthquake.”
T&T has experienced heavy flooding but has not been subjected to major natural disasters like an earthquake, hurricane (in recent years) or a tsunami. Caribbean countries like neighbouring Grenada felt the brunt of hurricane Ivan’s fury in September 2004. On January 12, 2010, an earthquake rocked Port-au-Prince, Haiti, killing about 300,000 people. To date, they have begun the process of rebuilding. But there is still a lot of work to be done in poverty-stricken Haiti.
Lee Sing waits on Gopeesingh to sign off
Port-of-Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing, meanwhile, says he is waiting on Education Minister Dr Tim Gopeesingh to sign off on the evacuation plan for Port-of-Spain. Lee Sing said he intends to meet with Gopeesingh to discuss details like school dismissal drawn from the evacuation plan. He said the meeting was tentatively set for next week.
Asked about the evacuation plan, Lee Sing said, “I have received communication asking for an urgent meeting with Gopeesingh to define his role when we discuss the egress plans for PoS. We have an evacuation plan but it is contingent upon Gopeesingh signing off on it. “We have had flooding in the past and before you know it somebody takes the decision to send about 20,000 children home. It means about 20,000 parents are leaving the city in a haste. Think about the traffic gridlock.
“We want to look at ad hoc plans to dismiss the school children. It can only be determined by the professionals in our midst. We are speaking about that kind of management. Then, we can we go ahead and truly proclaim it in the newspapers.” Asked if T&T was ready for a disaster he said, “I don’t think we are. It’s only when people see things are amiss. The whole world is under water.”
On June 2, Lee Sing hosted a Disaster Preparedness Calypso Competition to sensitise young people and children about natural disasters. It took place at City Hall, Port-of-Spain.
Asked about plans for the schools Ramroop said, “We went to schools and we did drills with the students. The fire services conducted a number of drills. And on March 20, the Tunapuna and the Port-of-Spain City Corporation conducted live drills at a number of schools. A number of corporations did evacuations for schools. On a weekly basis, the ODPM conducts a number of drills in a number of schools across the country.”
In a previous interview (June 13, 2011) Ramroop had said schools would have been targeted via drills. The ODPM, he had said, was working to ensure every school undertakes a fire, tsunami and earthquake drill once a term. Ramroop said what really determines a country’s survival was how people in communities respond. “No matter how good we are, if the communities are not resilient like the Japanese we would have an increased loss of life like Haiti.”
Egress Guide of Port-of-Spain
Instructions
If egress becomes necessary due to severe flooding, people who are indoors will shelter-in-place, preferably on high ground, monitor radio and television broadcasts, until it is deemed safe by the Incident Commander for them to leave the building. This applies to all workers and students.
The Downtown Owners and Merchants Association and all ministries will make the necessary provisions for shelter-in-place operations that exceed the stipulated school and work hours respectively.
The transient population requiring public transport to leave the city will be encouraged to make their way to one of the loading bays or transport hubs like Woodford Square (Primary) and Woodford Square (Alternative)
Transport hubs
West Hub—MovieTowne (Primary)
Hasely Crawford Stadium (Alternative)
East Hub—VMCOTT (Primary)
EWMSC (Alternative)
North Hub—Wild Flowers Park (Primary)
King George V Park (Alternative)
Self-egress by vehicle
• Exit PoS utilising designated egress routes
• People entering or leaving PoS to the west will use Tragarete Road through St James. They can also use Long Circular Road through St James.
• People entering or leaving PoS to the east will use the Lady Young Road, Morvant, or Belmont Circular Road
• Alternatively, the Santa Cruz Road can also be used.
• No private vehicle will be used south of Duke Street.
Pedestrian population
As much as is reasonably possible, people travelling to go to communities on the outskirts of PoS, that is, Belmont, St Clair, St James, Cascade, Maraval, Woodbrook, Newtown and East Port-of-Spain are encouraged to walk if possible
People sheltering-in-place
After the egress of the transient population and the all-clear instruction is given, people sheltering-in-place will be given the option to leave the city, if they so desire. At this point the transportation system within the city will return to its normal operations
Special considerations
People who are unable to get to the hubs, designated emergency vehicles will stop at pre-determined locations along the emergency routes outlined. Traffic lights along these routes will blink red, yellow and green to indicate its use as an emergency route. However emergency vehicles must still approach with caution.
Private vehicles wishing to enter PoS via the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway must exit at the CRH/Uriah Butler Highway junction and continue their journey along the Eastern Main Road to Morvant Junction. The same holds for people leaving south Trinidad going into PoS. Co-ordinators will be stationed at each hub and bus stop. All emergency routes are to be used by emergency vehicles only. The east bound lane of the Beetham Highway, is designated for emergency vehicles only.
Directed west along the Beetham Highway, the left lane should be designated for the ingress of emergency response vehicles only. All other streets will retain their normal orientation with respect with respect to traffic flow. All interactions and traffic control points will be manned by the T&T Police Service and Defence Force.