Cayman to join regional disaster task force
Minister Tara Rivers and Premier Alden McLaughlin at Day of the JMC
(CNS): Cayman has agreed to participate in a formal regional British Overseas Territories rapid deployment team that can swiftly provide support for territories impacted by disasters such as hurricanes and tsunamis. The creation of a new task force and crisis hub in the region was revealed at the Joint Ministerial Council meeting in London on Wednesday, as it turned its attention to the UK’s responsibility to support its territories in the face of emergencies and natural disasters. The specialist helicopter that Cayman has committed to acquire, with support from the UK, will be part of this new relief force.
On the last day of JMC meetings, the overseas territories minister, Lord Ahmad, started the day discussing disaster management and UK’s role in coordinating disaster management planning
across its territories. This includes planning in the event of hurricanes and other disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, serious flooding, or volcanic activity.
An annual planning and readiness meeting will take place between the UK, BOTs, and other Caribbean countries that wish to participate. It was also noted that the UK had improved its own plans to swiftly respond to disasters in the BOTs.
Since the impact of the 2017 hurricane season on several British territories in this region, the UK has recognised that it must support its territories better in times of need, which scientists believe will only get worse in coming years as climate change fuels evermore ferocious storms and other natural disasters.
BOT leaders provided updates of their own disaster preparedness, and those from territories that were hit by hurricanes last year outlined the progress of recovery on their islands and thanked the UK for support, as well as Cayman for its direct assistance.
The goal now is to create a regional team that can be deployed to any island hit by disaster, strengthening regional cooperation. A crisis hub, coordinated by the FCO, will be created to aid in evacuations and in tracking missing persons during disasters.
Category: Politics
Tell me hazard management isn’t leading this for the Cayman Islands
The real plan is to buy future reserved airlines tickets so I can go visit my authentic caymanian relatives in another country.
re-inventing the wheel. There is a mechanism in the Caribbean that all the OT’s (except Cayman) are members of and they greatly benefit from the cooperation existing. Much more resources are also avaible through the existing regional mechanism than the Brits has ever given in a disaster. Think about it… what did the Brits do in Ivan Dean, Paloma, Gustav etc? What did the Brits do for BVI, TCI, Anguilla for thier recent hurricanes? Yes it is training of locals but this is also possible under the caribbean regional mechanism. As a matter of fact the other OT’s benefit twice – once from the caribbean group and then the other from FCO. It is only Cayman that soley depends on the Brits in a crisis and we all see where that got us in Paloma.
what mechanism?
Yes, tell us about the mechanism.
CDEMA
The OT’s (expect Cayman) receive far more benefit from CDEMA than the FCO. Training programmes, supplies, technical assistance, mitigation projects even in response in terms of personnel and relief supplies. Go check it out – just do an FOI on relief from FCO to the OT’s and disaster resilience programmes funded by the FCO
Good luck with that. I’ll check back with you later.
What a disaster that’s going to be
Here we go, all the armchair warriors that do nothing to improve anything but always have an opinion that is down on the matter. Last year, Cayman stepped up to the plate in many ways, and there is no reason we cannot go down this road. And the side benefit – we will always be prepared at home.
Yawn,
Better hope emergency personnel aren’t yawning when you call.