The Office of Disaster Management (ODM), has created a suite of natural hazard awareness products, as part of the public education and awareness activities. These will be provided to the public over the next few months starting this week.
This project was done between January and March through the support of the UNDP (The United Nations Development Programme) in partnership with CDEMA (The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency), OCHA (The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies). It was funded by European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid to strengthen Early Warning System in the Caribbean Region.
Public Education material was created in audio, video, poster and social media formats highlighting safety and preparedness activities for hurricanes, floods, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes. The focus is on building awareness on what people should do to prepare and what they can do to be safe during an event.
The younger population was not left out. A handbook was prepared for the grades 3 to 6 group entitled “Prepare with Perrie Parrot: A Guide to Natural Hazards for Primary Schools”. The aim is to make the information more appealing to the young ones by the use of a disaster management mascot – PERRIE PARROT.
At this time, we are mindful that the country is dealing with the effects of COVID-19.
However, the public must keep in mind that natural hazards such as earthquake, tsunami and volcano can occur at any time or within a short warning period and the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season is fast approaching.
[Forecasters have predicted a very active Atlantic hurricane season with a total of 18 named storms and nine predicted hurricanes, four of which are expected to be major of Category 3 or higher with sustained winds of at least 111 miles per hour.]
In this, a multi-hazard risk environment -safety and preparedness messaging must remain current in our minds and plans.
The spirit of collective action is already evident in the COVID-19 response, so let us keep it going this hurricane season as we all do what we can to be safe in this changing environment.
Continue to follow the advice of the health authorities as we all do our part to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Contact the ODM to access these educational products to support your preparedness activities [email protected]
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