Director of the National Emergency Management Organization Michelle Forbes spoke to the safe zones around Kingstown where persons can head in the event of a tsunami.
Speaking on WEFM last Thursday Forbes said there are several areas identified depending on where you are in Kingstown.
“If you are at Rose Place near the hospital there are two routes you can go; you can go up to the faith temple church, going out to the high part of New Montrose, that’s one of our evacuation points; you can also go up to Edinboro above nine steps, swing up that side if you are in the Rose Place area, you can keep going up to higher ground there, and above the cemetery there if you are in that side of Kingstown”.
“If you are across by the market, then you can actually go up what we call—by the public service union building, and also up to intermediate high school area,” Forbes said.
“Let’s say you go around customs area or Bank of SVG—you can go up to town hill but you turn left, don’t go right because if you right there is a low point there.” NEMO’s Director said.
Ms Forbes said that there are plans in place to have signs erected in these tsunami safe zones, as well as danger zones, making them easily identifiable by the public.
In 2019 the countries of the Caribbean Sea were engaged in the Caribe Wave 19 exercise to test the effectiveness of a Tsunami and Other Coastal Hazards Early Warning System, established in 2005 under the auspices of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). The exercise was an opportunity to test the effectiveness of alert systems for emergency management actors in the region.
Seventy-five tsunamis have occurred in the Caribbean over the past 500 years, i.e. nearly 10% of all ocean tsunamis over that period. Tsunamis, whether generated by earthquakes, landslides or volcanic eruptions, have killed more than 3,500 people in the region since the mid-19th century, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Moreover, the population explosion and the growth of tourism in coastal areas over recent decades have made the region more vulnerable.
