The National Emergency Planning Organization (NEPO) held a meeting to discuss the official start of the 2016 Atlantic Hurricane season. The meeting was held at the Emergency Operations Centre on Friday, May 20th.
NEPO, the agency in Dominica responsible for disaster management meets ahead of the start of the season to review the state of preparedness.
Hon Prime Minister, Dr Roosevelt Skerrit, believes that it is very important for emphasis to be placed on hurricane preparedness.
“We have to take this hurricane season seriously not only because of the seriousness of the storms but the fact is that our country still is largely vulnerable as a result of Tropical Storm Erika. So we’re not, from an environmental standpoint, on strong footing as we were before August 27, 2015. It will require a greater level of responsibility and focus on our part to ready ourselves because we have no control over any disaster. We cannot stop it from happening but we can minimize the impact by preparation,” he said.
The Hon. Minister responsible for Disaster Management, Rayburn Blackmoore, says citizens should always be prepared for the hurricane season especially as a national collective.
“We want to ensure that all the organs of the National Emergency Planning Organization are fully functional and that we move into high gear with preparations and your ability to respond particularly when we get to the peak of the period in late July.”
Hon Blackmoore spoke of the destruction of Tropical Storm Erika and hopes that lessons were learnt from this experience.
“Dominica is not an easy place to develop because of its very difficult terrain. We have done tremendous work to rebuild our infrastructure. You may recall that before Erika, 65% of our road network was in great condition. We are not shaken to a point where we cannot bounce back. I am hoping that we take this thing seriously and that we have learnt from Erika and we do not revert to old practises.”
Acting National Disaster Coordinator, Fitzroy Pascal, says the period leading up to this event has been fruitful.
He noted that that preparations for this hurricane season are more intense, referencing the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Erika.
“NEPO meets annually before the hurricane season. We are hoping that we can increase the frequency of meetings also at the subcommittee levels. There are nine subcommittees which have chairpersons and inform NEPO,” he said.
