Topic: Hazard Management Cayman Islands

If you didn't feel the Jan. 9 quake, you certainly heard about it. Editorial writer Jennifer Hemmingsen shares reactions from readers about the tsunami scare, disaster response and safety on the islands.

A 7.6 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Honduras Tuesday night triggered a tsunami scare that impacted the Cayman Islands and raised new questions about the islands’ emergency alert capability.

The Prospect Community Emergency Response Team won first place in the annual CERT Challenge, sponsored by Hazard Management Cayman Islands and the Cayman Islands Red Cross.

Hazard Management Cayman Islands Director McCleary Frederick is retiring after 36 years in civil service. Mr. Frederick began his work for the Cayman Islands Government in 1981 as a trainee draftsman for the Public Works Department.

Following a month spent helping restore basic services to the hurricane-ravaged British Virgin Islands, Danielle Coleman of Hazard Management Cayman Islands says full recovery is likely to take more than a year.

Right in the thick of hurricane season, the Cayman Islands Red Cross and Hazard Management Cayman Islands took some time to meet with students and teach them how to lessen their risk of being impacted by a natural disaster.

Hurricane relief efforts are slowly moving from response to recovery in British Overseas Territories battered by an active storm season, according to Cayman Islands aid workers.

The second relief mission from Cayman to Anguilla took off on Tuesday, bringing medical professionals and vitally needed supplies to one of the islands directly affected by Hurricane Irma.

Hazard Management Cayman Islands has sent Danielle Coleman, the agency’s deputy director of preparedness and planning, to the British Virgin Islands to assist with aid efforts. Ms. Coleman will assist the BVI Red Cross and BVI Department of Disaster Management in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

Firefighters received training from the British Royal Navy this weekend in operating and handling a new boat and WaveRunners in search and rescue operations around Grand Cayman.

Military trucks rolled onto the white sands of Seven Mile Beach on Friday as police and Royal Navy helicopters hovered overhead in a show of strength from the British disaster response team currently operating in the Caribbean.

The Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce, Hazard Management Cayman Islands and the Cayman Islands Tourism Association are teaming up with Caribbean-Central American Action to develop disaster recovery plans. The groups signed a “statement of purpose” late last month “to make sure that the local community is more prepared for any storm-related natural disaster,” according to a press release from the Chamber of Commerce.

Hazard Management Cayman Islands Director McCleary Frederick was named the first international recipient of the Governor’s Hurricane Conference Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to disaster preparedness and recovery.

Call it the plan before the storm. Various agencies of the Cayman Islands government came together Wednesday to conduct the annual hurricane exercise, a drill to ensure that everybody is prepared for their role in confronting a major storm.

Hazard Management Cayman Islands reminds the public that they will receive text messages during a tsunami response exercise on Tuesday, March 21.

The Cayman Islands will join a Caribbean-wide tsunami exercise, called Caribe Wave, on Tuesday, March 21, when every cellphone owner in Cayman will receive an “emergency” text message.

Emergency public bulletins broadcast just before or after a natural disaster, serious public health threat or during a significant man-made disaster would have to be issued by all local broadcast license-holders, according to new legislation seeking to govern Cayman’s disaster management.

Dozens of volunteers clad in light-blue vests practiced putting out fires, search-and-rescue techniques and treating “wounded” patients Saturday morning at the Lower Valley agriculture grounds.

The National Emergency Operations Centre ran its annual hurricane exercise Wednesday to test the preparedness of those that will be in charge of emergency response in the event that a storm hits the Cayman Islands.