Hurricane Plan Revised

Continuing its efforts to assist Cayman in recovering from Hurricane Ivan, James Lee Witt and Associates (JLWA) has signed on to revamp the national hurricane plan in preparation for the 1 June start of the storm season.

Under the terms of the new contract between JLWA and government, the focus will be on revising and updating the hurricane plan. Currently, the revised plan is in draft form. JLWA will discuss the draft with senior civil servants on Friday (18 March). The revised plan should be complete by the beginning of hurricane season.

“The idea is to freshen up, revise if you will, the current plan based on the lessons learned after Ivan,” said JLWA team member Dale Peterson. “The new plan will get everyone involved and hopefully clarify the roles of each emergency response person before, during and after an event. There were many things that changed the way people approached dealing with hurricanes after Ivan which will be incorporated into the reformatted and revised existing plan.”

One new aspect will be the inclusion of a recovery plan. This will detail how the EOC transitions into recovery management after an event. It will also include debris management, temporary housing, and other areas which government has identified as urgent after a national disaster.

Overall, the revised Hurricane Plan will incorporate both existing and updated critical aspects of the immediate response to and initial recovery from such an event. The revised plan will also address existing policy issues. Training and table top exercises will be offered by JLWA. The training will include collaborative exercises that present scenarios designed to prepare executive leadership and first responders for the quickly approaching hurricane season. These exercises lead into a full exercise in May.

Each government department will be responsible for its own emergency plan which eventually should go beyond the scope solely of hurricanes. The plan should prepare the department for any internal emergencies and then expand to include disaster preparedness and recovery.

Both government and JLWA have identified the following areas as crucial to improving the way Cayman approaches and deals with natural disasters: shelter management, procedures for search and rescue, mass casualty management, expansion of the EOC to include an information centre, strengthening district response, and preparing for post event emergency housing.

The contract for the hurricane plan is set to be completed by the beginning of the 2005 hurricane season.