Saba information managers (from left) Alexandria Hassell, Lionel Charles and Sarah van der Horn. At right is disaster management advisor Mark den Hollander who facilitated the training.
SABA–In an effort to continuously improve disaster management, Saba completed two actions last week: a training for information managers and the successful installation of a satellite system.
Saba Telecommunications Company Satel had a successful session to implement the satellite system on Thursday. With financial support from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, Satel acquired a satellite ground station that has been attached directly to the existing system.
The satellite system provides an acute emergency connection for essential communication – for example, by the Island Governor – with the outside world in case the regular communication system does not work, as was the case with Hurricane Irma. The 2017 hurricanes reaffirmed that the means of communications need to be improved.
Dutch Minister of Justice and Security Ferd Grapperhaus, in a letter to the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament on December 11 regarding the evaluation report on the crisis response to Hurricanes Irma and Maria, mentioned the improvements in Saba’s disaster management, based on the lessons that were learned from the 2017 hurricanes and the island’s Disaster Management Policy Plan.
One of the measures Saba took to strengthen the crisis organisation, aside from the acquiring of a satellite system, was the recruiting of information managers. Saba organised a training on Wednesday.
An information manager has an important role in the disaster management organisation, as he or she supports one of the two disaster-management teams, the Island Policy Team EBT or the Command on Place of Incident (CoPI), with the flow of information.
Information managers keep track of action points during incidents, write situation reports during an incident, help visualise information and make sure that the EBT or COPI and Emergency Support Function (ESF) group have the correct information to react more quickly and make sure everything is done.
The training for the information managers focused on the crisis-management structure within the Dutch Kingdom, the different roles and responsibilities and techniques to collect information and organise it in such a way as to facilitate decision-making.
As part of the training, multiple video conferences were organised with the National Coordination Centre (NCC) of the Ministry of Justice and Security, the Departmental Crisis Management Coordination Centre of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water management and the Dutch Government Representative.
The training was a first step in the professionalisation of the information managers. This new function will be part of the disaster-management organisation and the different exercises in 2019.
Present at the training were information managers Alexandria Hassell, Lionel Charles and Sarah van der Horn. Civil servants were invited a while ago to indicate whether they were interested in becoming information managers. The training was facilitated by disaster management advisor Mark den Hollander.
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/83940-saba-completes-actions-in-disaster-management
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