Saint Lucia will join other countries in the Caribbean and Latin America as a participant in a regional tsunami response exercise today, March 14.

Dubbed Caribewave19, the purpose of the exercise is to improve the effectiveness of tsunami warning systems along the coasts of the Caribbean and adjacent regions. The exercise provides an opportunity for the corresponding emergency management organizations to exercise their operational lines of communications, review their tsunami response procedures and promote tsunami preparedness.

Andrew George, Programme Development Officer at the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) detailed components of the drill.

The first phase of the simulation will see the evacuation of several primary and infant schools in the Castries basin. The second phase will be the testing of the country’s early warning systems, namely automated sirens in Castries and Canaries, radio broadcast interrupt capability and provision of early warnings through a mobile phone application. The third phase will be done in Canaries, where two schools, participating businesses, and residents, will be evacuated to predetermined evacuation and assembly points.

The exercise will take place on March 14 at 2 p.m., and will be based on a scenario that includes a 6.0 magnitude earthquake associated with an underwater volcanic eruption, the subsequent collapse of an unstable section of the Kick ’em Jenny underwater volcano, and a resulting tsunami.