Caribbean prepares for 2006 hurricane season

13 December 2005

This year’s hurricane season has been the most active season since records have been kept. There were 26 named storms with storms forming both before and after the official season dates of June 1st to November 30th. All things considered, the Caribbean was quite fortunate in that the vast majority of the systems missed making landfall within the Caribbean islands.

But the Caribbean may not be as lucky in 2006, a year which forecasters have predicted will be more active than 2005.

With this in mind the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in collaboration with the European Commission for Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) have stared preparing for the upcoming hurricane season. 

From December 8th to 12th, 2005 Caribbean National Societies and Overseas Branches (NS/OSB) met in Barbados to discuss disaster preparedness.

The workshop titled “Strengthening Disaster Management Capacity in the Caribbean Region” was help in collaboration with ECHO. This workshop was a foundation for the Pre-Hurricane Meeting which will be held in April 2006.

The purpose of the meeting was to highlight the importance of having a regional strategy and results framework for comprehensive disaster management.

The Caribbean in recent years has been vulnerable to many natural disasters and the resultant extreme economic, social and physical dislocation.

As such, many NS/OSB have recognized the need to aggressively promote appropriate loss reduction strategies.

ECHO will provide €500,000 from its programmatic project to support the Pan America Disaster Response Unit (PADRU) in fulfilling its role in the Caribbean region in particular with regard to its mandate to support NS/OSB in reducing risk, prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies remains steadfast in the view that the challenges being generated by the frequent destructive events in the Caribbean require all available capabilities and resources to focus, not only on the response to disaster, but on the wider issue of risk reduction.

The workshop focused on the work that the NS/OSB should be doing before, during and after disasters as well as the role of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in disasters.

Additionally, the issue of co-operation and co-ordination among disaster management agencies in dealing with disasters was also addressed.

NS/OSB were encouraged to participate in current training programmes being conducted throughout the region by disaster management agencies like telecom and warehousing, to ensure that standards and content are similar across the region and to promote best practices.

In 2005, hurricanes Dennis and Emily blew through the Caribbean in July affecting more than eight countries directly or indirectly.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an appeal for US$587,000 and assisted with US$193,750 in DREF funds.

More than 1.4 million people were evacuated and unfortunately 80 persons were reported as either dead or missing.