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Last Updated: Jul 30th, 2007 - 10:39:57 |
Source: http://www.antiguasun.com/paper/?as=view&sun=281935077507132005&an=353052086107262007&ac=Local
The National Office of Disaster Services (NODS) is on a drive to recruit more disaster technicians as it is seriously understaffed, a condition that is causing areas of disaster management to be neglected.
“We are in the process of reorganising NODS to better cope with the demands of disaster management,” Director Philmore Mullin said.
He said that apart from himself, the only other disaster management technician is Sherrod James. The department is made up of 14 staff members, including cleaners and drivers.
He said because disaster management is very costly it has been difficult to get people trained. The office is, however, in the process of training two other technicians. That still will not get NODS’ staff complement where it needs to be. “We should not be operating at this stage below five disaster management technicians,” Mullin said.
Each of those technicians would then be designated a critical area of disaster management for their responsibility. Those areas are prevention, preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery.
He said the five areas would be divided into units so that the respective managers could develop a three to five-year plan that will guide their responsibilities and duties. For example, the preparedness technician would handle the hurricane shelters and the training of first-aid workers, while the response technician would make certain that there are enough trained emergency response people in the different government agencies with the appropriate equipment; they would also handle training for different disaster emergencies.
Mullin said the demands of disaster management, which have changed drastically over the years, need this type of direction. He said when the department first opened, he said that he merely had to inform the public about hurricane preparedness, now the department has to coordinate a cross spectrum effort for multiple disaster possibilities not only for Antigua and Barbuda but also for Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.
As a recruiting mechanism, he said that they hope to integrate the Tourism Cadet Corps into the disaster management programme. While learning about how preparedness can better the tourism product, Mullin hopes that once they pass through the programme they will see disaster management as a serious and viable career path. “It (disaster management) is a very comfortable career in other parts of the world and the Caribbean is now coming to grips with that,” Mullin said.
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