PHILIPSBURG-- The Caribe Wave annual tsunami exercise of the United Nations Educational, Scientific Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Tsunami and Other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions took place on Tuesday.
The Fire Department and Office of Disaster Management took part in the exercise, plus four resorts that are part of the St. Maarten Timeshare Association: Flamingo Beach Resort, Royal Palm Beach Resort, Oyster Bay Beach Resort and La Vista Resort. The participating resorts carried out an evacuation of the ground and lower-level floors at their facilities.
The scenario on Tuesday was that a three-metre tsunami wave would impact coastal areas of St. Maarten. The exercise objective is for countries, emergency management stakeholders and communities at risk to test validate and update their tsunami response plans.
Three different scenarios will be simulated for Caribe Wave 2017. The first simulates a magnitude 7.9 earthquake generated off the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. The second is an 8.2 magnitude earthquake off the Southeastern coast of Cuba. The third, in which St. Maarten will be taking part, is a magnitude 8.5 earthquake Northeast of the Lesser Antilles.
Each of the 48 countries and territories that are members of Caribe Wave team will decide the level of participation and coordinate the corresponding activities within their jurisdictions. St. Maarten is a member state of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for Tsunami and Other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions ICG CARIBE EWS, which is one of UNESCO’s bodies.
ICG CARIBE EWS is the regional mechanism that visions to install tsunami preparation in the region by education, information and cooperation.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/64567-four-resorts-take-part-in-caribe-wave-exercise
