LocalThe National Disaster Management Agency (NaDMA) has started planning for the hosting of CARIBEWAVE 2018, carded for Thursday 15th March, 2018.

The Scenario this year will take the form of an earthquake just off the Coast of Barbados which will trigger a Regional Tsunami. Due to the location of the Earthquake, it will be expected to affect the Eastern side of the island; St. Andrew and St. David.

The exercise this year will therefore be held in St. Andrew, the focus area will span from Telescope to Hope.

On Tuesday 30th January, a team from NaDMA together with the District and community groups will engage residents in the focus areas, to sensitize them on the exercise and the importance of their involvement.

2017 was a successful year for Grenada in the hosting of the exercise as we were able to double the amount of residents reached within the exercise area. CARIBEWAVE 2017 was held in St. Patrick.

CARIBEWAVE (Caribbean Tsunami Warning Exercise) is a tsunami exercise held annually in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, under the direction of UNESCO and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

The purpose of the CARIBEWAVE exercise is to improve the effectiveness of the Tsunami Warning System along the Caribbean coast.  The exercise provides an opportunity for emergency management organizations throughout the region to test their operational lines of communications, review their tsunami response procedures, and to promote tsunami preparedness.

The objectives of the CARIBEWAVE Exercise are to test and evaluate the operations of the Caribbean Tsunami Warning System (Caribe EWS), to validate preparedness response to a tsunamis (which are test protocols and communications systems between tsunami warning centers and the tsunami warning focal points), and the use of the PTWC (Pacific Tsunami Warning Center) enhanced tsunami products  for the Caribbean, as well as assist in tsunami preparedness efforts of the emergency management agencies in those areas.