RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

As the worst of the hur­ri­cane sea­son ap­proach­es, teams from Palmiste, Debe and Bar­rack­pore took part in a Hur­ri­cane and Flood Dis­as­ter Sim­u­la­tion, or­gan­ised by the Com­mu­ni­ty Emer­gency Re­sponse Team (CERT).

This hands-on train­ing, led by CERT train­ers from the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion and the Sus­tain­able Cli­mate Re­silience Ini­tia­tive, in­volved over 70 vol­un­teers and took place at the Fran­cis Seep­aul Recre­ation Ground in Debe on Thurs­day.

The sim­u­la­tion fea­tured downed trees, flood­ing, fires, and med­ical emer­gen­cies, with vol­un­teers from Palmiste, Debe, Bar­rack­pore, and oth­er near­by ar­eas re­spond­ing.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia dur­ing the ex­er­cise, Ed­ward Mood­ie, pres­i­dent of Sus­tain­able Cli­mate Re­silience, said the train­ing pre­pares cit­i­zens for dis­as­ters not on­ly at home, but al­so in their com­mu­ni­ty.

“Par­tic­i­pants were trained in fire sup­pres­sion, search and res­cue, and han­dling loot­ing. We want to pre­vent dis­as­ters be­fore they hap­pen. But when they do hap­pen, peo­ple must know what to do,” Mood­ie said.

He urged cit­i­zens to get in­volved, say­ing: “We fol­low the in­ci­dent com­mand sys­tem mod­el, and there’s a place for every­one—el­der­ly, dis­abled, any­one will­ing to help. The key is self-preser­va­tion first, then sav­ing as many lives as pos­si­ble.”

Den­nis Gopie, a CERT in­struc­tor with the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment, ex­plained that their goal was to equip cit­i­zens to act be­fore emer­gency ser­vices ar­rive.

“We are train­ing peo­ple to bridge that gap. We’ve seen cas­es where peo­ple want­ed to help but caused harm. If some­one is chok­ing or bleed­ing, this train­ing can help save lives un­til re­spon­ders ar­rive,” he said.

He em­pha­sised the pro­gramme’s grow­ing in­ter­est.

“We are get­ting re­quests from church­es, com­mu­ni­ty groups, and oth­ers. This is a free course. The re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions have pro­vid­ed great sup­port,” he said.

He not­ed that since 2018, the PDRC has trained over 350 vol­un­teers in dis­as­ter skills.

Videsh Lal, co­or­di­na­tor of the Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit (DMU), said: “CERT is a com­mu­ni­ty pro­gramme. In the first 48 hours of a dis­as­ter, com­mu­ni­ties are of­ten on their own. Roads may be blocked and com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tems may be down. We want peo­ple to be pre­pared to act.”

Lal said the ad­di­tion­al trained vol­un­teers help fill man­pow­er gaps, as the DMU has un­der ten staffers.

“This builds ca­pac­i­ty and helps peo­ple sup­port their com­mu­ni­ty and them­selves. Aware­ness has in­creased, and res­i­dents un­der­stand why prepa­ra­tion mat­ters.”

He said the CERT sim­u­la­tion will con­tin­ue across var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ties, aimed at im­prov­ing dis­as­ter readi­ness and re­silience. The train­ing was done by par­tic­i­pants of all ages.

Among them was 17-year-old Bibi Khadi­ja Ali, of St Mary’s, Moru­ga, who said she joined the CERT train­ing af­ter her par­ents en­cour­aged her to take part be­cause their com­mu­ni­ty of­ten floods.

Tal­ly Mo­hammed, 61, of Welling­ton Gar­dens, said he had com­plet­ed CERT train­ing in the past but re­turned to the cur­rent pro­gramme to up­date and strength­en his skills.