ODPEM engaging several communities across the island on tsunami awareness

Jamaica joins the international community in marking today (November 5) as World Tsunami Awareness Day.

In observing World Tsunami Awareness Day 2022, Jamaica will today be showcasing activities focused on increasing the island’s resilience to the natural hazard.

World Tsunami Awareness Day is being observed under the theme ‘Early Warning and Early Action Before Every Tsunami: Building partnerships and leveraging data to ensure no one is left behind’. The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), which is leading the charge to increase tsunami awareness locally, will today engage with several communities across the island with the message of #onlytogether and #gettohigherground.

The public will be informed about the signs of a tsunami and what to do in response to an event. Sensitisation sessions, incorporating schools and communities will be held in Trelawny, Hanover and Kingston and St Andrew.

In addition, the newly trained Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) for the Rose Hall and Greater Montego Bay areas will conduct a tsunami community walk-through in St James. For St Catherine, ODPEM will be hosting an Information Day at the Old Harbour Bay Fishing Village, while a tsunami exhibition will be set up on the beach.

Detailing the activities planned

The event is in collaboration with the St Catherine Municipal Corporation, Social Development Commission (SDC) and the Jamaica Red Cross. Over in St Mary, ODPEM will engage the fisherfolk at Pagee Beach, Port Maria.

ODPEM, which is leading the charge to increase tsunami awareness locally and bolster the country’s resilience, is taking a multi-hazard approach to disaster risk reduction. Also, the disaster preparedness and emergency agency will focus on the importance of reducing tsunami risk by further developing accurate and timely tsunami warning systems and strengthening participatory and inclusive disaster risk governance to act on early warnings.

ODPEM has prepared Old Harbour Bay as the first tsunami-ready community in Jamaica. The community received this designation under UNESCO’s Tsunami-ready Programme in 2021 and was equipped with a siren to emit a warning should the area come under the threat of a potential tsunami.

The town of Port Maria in St Mary is scheduled for outfitting with similar equipment under a recently implemented project.

Sophia Mitchell, acting senior director of ODPEM’s Preparedness and Emergency Operations Division (PEOD), reports that, “the Project for Improvement of Emergency Communication System in Jamaica will see improvement from one to 15 multi-hazard sirens being installed in the Old Harbour Bay and Port Maria communities. This will bolster our capacity and provide institutional strengthening at the local level as we seek to build strong and resilient communities to all forms of hazards.”

Between 1998 and 2017, tsunamis claimed more than 250,000 lives. Though tsunamis do not frequently occur in Jamaica, the presence of fault lines puts the country at risk to the non-seasonal natural hazard.