The National Emergency Management Organisation (NEMO) joined the rest of the region today in participating in “CARIBE WAVE 18”, the annual Tsunami Warning Exercise for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions.
Exercise CARIBE WAVE has three hypothetical scenarios which simulate a tsunami generated by earthquakes located along the Southern Lesser Antilles, along the Caribbean coast of Colombia and off the West coast of Puerto Rico.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines participated in the exercise using the first scenario which simulates a tsunami generated by a magnitude 8.6 earthquake located south of Barbados.
As part of our local participation, NEMO conducted Tsunami Evacuation Drills from about 10:00am with the Community of Rose Place, the Kingstown Anglican School, the Clare Valley Government School and Community.
NEMO said in a statement that today’s Tsunami Warning Exercise is a simulated exercise and the scenarios are not real and this exercise is not related to the activities that are taking place at the Kick ’em Jenny under water volcano.
The National Emergency Management Organisation also activated the National Emergency Operation Centre and used the opportunity to test the National Tsunami Warning Protocols and the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) System, which is a web based system for disseminating information to the public via email, smart phones, and radio interrupt.
The Tsunami Warning Exercise was also conducted as part of NEMO’s Communities and Schools Tsunami Project, under the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency’s (CDEMA’s) Country Directed Fund which is funded by the European Union
