Disaster management is no longer a spare-time activity; it’s a full-time job that needs paid staff and an established Disaster Management Agency.
That is the view of two prominent members of the National Hurricane Committee: Mr. Donovan Ebanks, recently appointed chairman; and Mr. Kirkland Nixon, head of the NHC co-ordination sub-committee.
Mr. Ebanks, who is also Deputy Chief Secretary, revealed that he will be asking for funding in the next annual budget for the establishment of a Disaster Management Agency. He anticipates staff being in place by early 2006. It need not involve more than two or three persons initially, he indicated.
Hurricane mitigation is not just between June and November, the men pointed out. It’s year round.
Mr. Ebanks observed that the NHC has existed on $30,000 a year and finding spare time. The committee will continue to operate on the basis of members’ expertise from their jobs, he said. But there has to be somebody year-round to work on public education, mitigation and making sure resources are in place.
Another goal is to have legislation in place by the end of this year to deal with emergency disaster management. Present legislation should be reviewed, the men said, so that the roles of the Governor, Cabinet and MLAs are well defined.
Other goals over the next 24-36 months include an extension to the Fire Department Headquarters at Owen Roberts Airport. This building served as Command Central during Hurricane Ivan last September. The long-term plan calls for a purpose-built Emergency Management Centre, which would house 911 and emergency services.
‘We’re all wiser by virtue of what we went through,’ Mr. Ebanks said of the devastating storm.
‘We all feel even more confident we can deal with what the future brings for us. Yet, having said that, we’re also much more conscious of things we can strive to do better. Ivan is an opportunity to really move the whole matter of disaster preparedness and disaster management up to a much higher level,’ Mr. Ebanks elaborated.
Mr. Nixon pointed out that, as a result of Ivan, everyone is now very conscious of disaster management – from the Cabinet on down.
‘We have to translate the opportunity into action and enhance our systems,’ Mr. Ebanks continued on that line of thought. ‘The other reality we can’t lose sight of is that in a few years people will forget. So this is an opportunity that lasts for only a few short years.’
Cayman has had a written hurricane plan at least since the 1970s. The pattern was that, after each hurricane season ended, those involved would get together and make recommendations for improvement. Over the decades, the plan grew from a few pages to thick binders detailing sub-committee members, responsibilities and actions to be taken at each phase of the hurricane from alert to watch to warning and all clear.
In recent years, the NHC began considering disasters beyond hurricanes. Mr. Nixon, who is Chief Fire Officer, pointed out, ‘In my business, you think about disaster every single day.’
He pointed out that, along with hurricanes and earthquakes, there can be man-made situations as well.
In November 2003, for example, a massive all-day counter-terrorism exercise involving overseas observers was held at the Community College. Organisers of that event planned it in their spare time, Mr. Nixon noted.
He paid tribute to NHC members and all who had worked with them during the Ivan experience.
‘It was facing the tiger – and we won,’ Mr. Nixon said. ‘A lot of us for a lifetime had been preparing for that moment. When it came, we rose to the occasion.
‘Year after year we would prepare and the storm would turn away. But we knew we would have to face reality one day and Ivan was that reality.’
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