MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Disaster management team in the Falkland Islands
Former British Gov. Frank Savage, (FCO/OTD) and his colleague, Roger Bellers (DFID) Photo PN “To spread the word that preparedness does save lives” This was the reason given by Frank Savage, adviser on disaster management to the British Foreign and Commonwealth's Overseas Territories Department (FCO/OTD), why he and colleague, Roger Bellers of the Department for International Development (DFID) are in the Falkland Islands this week.
At the end of a seven day visit which began on April 28th the team, which normally also includes Miami-based Larry Covington, FCO/OTD Law Enforcement Adviser, will present an interim report, to be followed within four weeks by a final report, which will cover the whole spectrum of disaster management from risk assessment, through command structures and responsibilities to the coordination of all the agencies likely to be involved in the case of a disaster, natural or otherwise, overtaking the Falkland Islands. The team's activities and its review of the effectiveness of existing plans and the efficiency of those tasked with carrying them out will culminate in a "table top exercise" to be held on Friday. This will involve the upper levels of the Falkland Islands' administration. Mr.Savage, a former British Governor in both Montserrat and the British Virgin Islands, explained that the British Overseas Territories Disaster Management Scheme had begun as a response to criticism in Westminster of the British government's to a number of disasters which had struck the Caribbean, beginning in 1989 with Hurricane Hugo. Hurricane Hugo left Montserrat with 90% of al its structures destroyed, including the island's hospital and virtually all the homes of its 12,000 residents. A volcano followed in 1995, which left Montserrat's capital under 50ft of volcanic material and caused some two thirds of the island's population to leave. The team agreed that the Falkland Islands were fortunate in not being exposed to the same range of natural disasters that occurred in the Caribbean, but stressed that the arrival in the Islands each year of thousands of cruise ship passengers, brought with it the potential for events which could stretch locally available resources to their limits. While their visit to the Falkland Islands was only in its early stages, the FCO/OTD team said that they had been impressed and encouraged by what they had already seen and learned. Their review, which is advisory and will include recommendations for training needs, is being carried out at the invitation of the Governor of the Falkland Islands and will be presented to him. Further circulation of the review will be at his discretion. John Fowler (Mercopress) Stanley
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