St. Georges, Grenada, February 29th, 2016 (CDEMA) – 53 representatives from both District and National Emergency Operations Centres (EOCs) in Grenada benefitted from a 3 day training workshop on emergency management centre operations. The training was held at the Queen’s Park National Stadium from February 24th – 26th 2016.
The training was facilitated by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Agency (NaDMA) and financed under the 10th European Development Fund ACPEU Project.
“The training course was very timely and presents an opportunity for the disaster management fraternity in Grenada to enhance knowledge and skills in preparation for TRADEWINDS 2016 as well as overall development of disaster management in Grenada”, said Terry Walters, Head of NaDMA Grenada. He also noted that the participants were very enthusiastic and very interested in the learning and participated fully in the exercises. The training course is part of a wider programme by the NaDMA to prepare for the full scale TRADEWINDS Exercise scheduled for June 2016 in Grenada.
The EOC is the coordinating hub for emergency operations. It is the central command and control facility through which all stakeholders including response agencies, governmental and non-governmental organisations, and relief agencies coordinate and share information. The EOC can and sometimes function on a 24/7 basis. It operates on the basic principles of emergency or disaster management at a strategic level. The EOC is the centre for high level decision making, it sees the “big picture” in country and, it prioritizes the allocation of resources geared at assisting and providing relief to an impacted population in times of disaster.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Joanne Persad, Programme Manager Preparedness and Response at CDEMA said, “the main goal of the training is to ensure that persons operating within the National EOC and District EOC understand the coordination, information sharing and decision making roles of an EOC for effecting response operations in country”.
The District and National EOCs are also members of the National Emergency Advisory Committee (NEAC). Under the auspices of NaDMA the specific emergency response committees that sit at the EOC were fully represented in the training. These include the Damage Assessment and Needs Analysis Committee, the Relief Committee, the Shelters Committee among others. The training course comprised of both classroom sessions and practical exercises.
For further information, please contact:
Clive Murray
Communication and Education Specialist
CARIBBEAN DISASTER EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY (CDEMA)
Resilience Way, Lower Estate
St. Michael
BARBADOS
Tel #: (246) 434-4880
Fax #: (246) 271-3660
Email: clive.murray@cdema.org