T&T does not have any major emergency plan to deal with the aftermath of a major earthquake said Gregory Aboud, President of the Downtown Owners and Merchants Association (DOMA).
He referred to Tuesday's earthquake 6.1 tremor which hit T&T.
"It was a very sharp earthquake but it was short in duration and the country escaped from any major damage. But it does draw into question our capability to deal with a major event. We do not at this time have a settled evacuation plan in the event of a catastrophe like an earthquake. We only have plans to deal with flooding and storms but we do not have an emergency evacuation plan to cope with a major seismic event," he said.
Aboud spoke to the media yesterday at the launch of a ceremony to build a multi-storey carpark, 15 Chacon Street, Port-of-Spain. An earthquake magnitude 6.2 hit T&T on Tuesday and there were several other aftershocks later on during the night. He said that T&T also does not have major rescue capabilities.
"Those persons who may be trapped in rubble or debris have a window of 50 or 60 hours to survive before they expire. We need to be able to say that we have a rescue capability that could respond to different areas. Especially if the earthquake were to happen during working hours which would find not only people at work but children in schools. That is a significant issue for us to consider," he said.
He renewed calls for the Ministry of National Security be put in charge of creating a reserve guard or reserve militia which was specifically intended to assist in the event of a search and rescue following a major earthquake.
"I have sat on more than one disaster committee and more than one evacuation committee and I renew calls that we reinvigorate the quest to form another committee to try to answer this question of who would be the best person to put in charge of an evacuation plan especially for the City of Port-of-Spain," he said.
Replying to queries about a building code to ensure protection of citizens in the event of a massive earthquake, Prime Minister Keith Rowley said a building code had been around for decades and what should be of concern was whether it has been complied with and enforced.
Speaking in Parliament, Rowley added,"Because of the high quality of building materials, in T&T the overall finished product is usually above minimum standards and where we're dealing with larger multi-storied buildings we usually build to the California code, the highest standard in the world, bearing in mind, we're in a seismic reactive zone."
He said procedures being completed on microzonation work in Port-of Spain and San Fernando–and soon to start in Tobago–would put T&T in a better position to respond to earthquakes.
Seismic microzonation is the process of subdividing a potential seismic or earthquake prone area into zones with respect to some geological and geophysical characteristics of the sites (ground shaking, liquefaction susceptibility, landslide, rock fall hazard, earthquake-related flooding, etc so that seismic hazards at different locations within the area can correctly be identified.
Rowely admitted he hadn't visited disaster-hit areas of Matelot and Grand Riviere. He, however, detailed work done by the Works, Local Government and other agencies including Defence Force.
He said there was continuous relief responses and if improvement was needed, this would be done. He said one MP for the area who had attended a Barbados conference instead of visiting, had explained why, and visited the area yesterday.
–with reporting by Gail Alexander
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