Regional earthquake survey assessment commences
By CDERA
Mon, 9 Jun 2008, 10:15
Bridgetown, Barbados, June 9, 2008 (CDERA) – Caribbean countries will know how prepared they are for an earthquake when the report of the Regional Earthquake Survey Assessment becomes available later this year. This survey is being conducted by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) in all 16 of its Participating States and is the first of many activities of the Earthquake Readiness Capacity Building Project which addresses the still under-recognized area of earthquake management in the Caribbean.
The two-year project, funded by the Government of Austria, provides €350,000 (US$ 483,700) for the assessment survey, as well as for the strengthening of plans for managing and minimising the risks posed by earthquakes and for launching public awareness campaigns in four pilot countries. The pilot countries of Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago were selected according to rigorous criteria intended to reflect the diversity of the region in geographical scope, population and economy and earthquake risk amongst other things. All CDERA Participating States will benefit, through improvements to their capacities to manage earthquakes and will be able to use the experiences from the pilot implementation as models for their programming..
The region’s susceptibility to earthquakes was dramatically reinforced last November 29th with the 7.3 magnitude tremor that affected the eastern Caribbean. Improving the region’s resilience to earthquakes is a critical component of the CDERA Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) Strategy for ensuring sustainable development in the Caribbean.
It is expected that the survey results will be available to all CDERA countries by September 2008 and the findings will be used to identify deficiencies in the region’s earthquake preparedness and the steps to be taken to bridge gaps at the regional and national levels.
For more information on earthquake readiness and the project please visit CDERA Website at http://www.cdera.org/