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Magistrate's Court staff & prisoners left behind in Tsunami drill
The exercise saw Government offices and other institutions evacuating staff and visitors to proceed to higher ground.
This news site was stationed at the Government Administration Complex and saw what could be described as an orderly but rapid evacuation of persons who exited the building and proceeded to an area some distance away in order to make their way to higher ground.
Prisoners & court staff left behind
However, our staff stationed at the Magistrate’s Court saw a different scenario at the sound of the alarm.
“It was noted that only the Senior Magistrate and her security police officer were whisked away from the court. All other court staff remained behind. It is this news site’s understanding that ideally everyone including prisoners, persons appearing for matters and other visitors to the court should have been informed to run for higher ground. However, the Magistrate though did say "Tsunami drill… I have to adjourn sine die.”
According to the DDM, this exercise was conducted to assist earthquake and tsunami preparedness efforts throughout the Territory.
“Recent tsunamis and their associated earthquakes, such as the 2004 Indian Ocean, 2009 Samoa, 2010 Haiti and Chile, and 2011 Japan, attest to the importance of proper planning for earthquake and tsunami response. This exercise will simulate a large earthquake (magnitude 8.5) located north of Panama which triggers a submarine landslide which in turn generates a tsunami that will impact the BVI,” said a bulletin from the DDM.
This exercise, which was organised under the framework of the United National Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) Intergovernmental Coordination Group for Tsunami and Other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions (ICG CARIBE EWS) and US National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP), will include the U.S. and Canadian Gulf; east coasts as well and the entire Caribbean Region.
“For the BVI, the exercise will allow for testing of the operational readiness of the National Emergency Alert and Broadcast System and provide opportunities for agencies to test their earthquake/tsunami plans and procedures,” the DDM bulletin said.
Simulation went well- DDM
Speaking to this news site today, Director of the DDM Sharleen S. DaBreo said, “The simulation went well actually. We were able to test ten different components of the National Emergency Broadcast and Alert System and this year we had a number of private sector organisations unlike previous years; and we had full support and full participation by Government and we had a number of schools that tested their plans and procedures.”
“We are now preparing our report. We have had our debrief and evaluators have indicated a number of best practices that they saw could be replicated for other schools and other organisations. So we have captured those. We have captured the things that worked really well this year and we have looked at the improvements over last year...so we have that information available and we have highlighted some specific things that we need to work on with the various organisations,” she said.
DaBreo said that over the next few months there will be meetings with the various organisations to address some of the shortfalls witnessed during today’s exercise.
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11 Responses to “Magistrate's Court staff & prisoners left behind in Tsunami drill”
There was no one from the court where I was, only Red Cross, Eslyn Henley Richie Some I recognised from Internal Audit and some from in the office across by the stop light. Not even the school ASPS and ES evacuated...