With hurricane season now at its peak, members of the Cayman Islands Regiment recently showed off their storm readiness with a display of their capacity and equipment for disaster-relief efforts.
The 12 reservists, on 30 Aug., gave Governor Jane Owen and government officials from various agencies a firsthand view of the extensive range of capabilities the regiment has to provide in times of “crisis”.
“We were delighted to be able to showcase the Regiment’s operational capability and demonstrate how we may build capacity across other uniformed services and the broader emergency response community. In so doing we hope to have helped inform decision-making at the Operational, Tactical and Strategic levels, highlighting what resources we can offer in a multi-agency response to a major incident,” Regiment Commander Roger Carter told the Cayman Compass via email Thursday.
The regiment’s fleet of vehicles, including the Foden truck, Falcon Mobile Command Center, Unimog Ambulance and Operational Hilux, were part of the demonstration held at the Lions Centre.
Owen and other officials, including Hazard Management Cayman Islands Director Danielle Coleman, were also given a ride on the back of the regiment’s transport truck.
Carter said HMCI has done an “incredible job” of creating a robust joint emergency service interoperability programme and the regiment forms “only a small part of this joint effort”.
The regiment team, Carter said in a recent interview, was ready for the hurricane season and had been continuing their training.
Coleman lauded the capacity of the regiment to respond to disasters.
“The Cayman Islands Regiment is a key Stakeholder in the National Hazard Management mechanism and we work very closely with them during ‘blue skies’ and in emergencies. It is reassuring to see the development over the last few years in regards to both personnel resources and equipment,” she said.
Related Videos
Can they all swim?.