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(PLTM) - Commitment has been made by an international organisation to repair and maintain the tsunami warning system on Virgin Gorda.
This was disclosed by Emergency Communications Manager at the Department of Disaster Management (DDM), Mr. Jasen Penn—who is also Chairman of the Tsunami Ready Task Team and Vice Chairman of the Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami and other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions (ICG/CARIBE EWS).
During the group’s recently held Fourteenth Session in Costa Rica from April 8 to 11, Mr. Penn disclosed that promises for the repair of the tsunami monitoring equipment and the expansion of the monitoring network were made.
“I was also able to meet with the representatives from the University Navigation Satellite Timing and Ranging Consortium (UNAVCO), which is a non-profit university-governed consortium that facilitates Geoscience research and education. They committed to repairing and maintaining instrumentation already existing on Virgin Gorda and to further expand the network to include additional monitoring sites,” he stated in a public missive.
It was during that session that Penn was re-elected to serve as Vice Chairman of the Tsunami Ready Task Team.
“The group is very active and is made up of scientists and disaster managers who have spent many years developing programmes aimed at increasing awareness about tsunamis and other coastal hazards,” he explained.
Through its membership with the group which has 48 member states, Penn related that the Territory will benefit from capacity building and strengthening in early warning and response for tsunamis and other coastal hazards.
Additionally, he said that the BVI will be able to build its resilience “through emphasis on coordination, hazard assessment, warning communication, preparedness, response and resilience at regional, national and community levels.”
Efficient tsunami detection is important to BVI given that the Caribbean and its adjacent seas, “has been the source region for 11 percent of the world’s fatal tsunamis over history, with almost 100 tsunamis observed that have impacted 23 countries within this region,” a press release stated.
It further noted that countries within the region are “urged to be in a constant state of readiness to face the dangers of tsunamis from distant, regional and local sources.”
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