NEOC Scales Down Operations After Passage of Hurricane Beryl

The National Emergency Operations Centre’s (NEOC) activities have been scaled down from Level Three to One, following the passage of Hurricane Beryl.

This was announced by Acting Director General, Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), Richard Thompson, during a debriefing at the Centre, based at ODPEM’s head office in Kingston, on Thursday (July 4).

ODPEM’s headquarters becomes the NEOC in times of disaster, and serves as the National Disaster Coordinator.

Mr. Thompson advised that in scaling down the operations, “you now are doing your post disaster recovery process, post disaster needs assessment and looking at how best you get the commercial distribution network up and running, and clearing roads that have been impacted and just getting the country back to some degree of normalcy.”

He pointed out that although the NEOC’s operations have been scaled down, “we are watching the space, in terms of how the [weather] systems might develop and how we track them.”

Mr. Thompson further advised that ODPEM is currently focused on damage assessment activities across the country, to help in effectively managing post-hurricane recovery by various sectors.

He said the damage assessment team “has been out in the field”, while advising that “Jamaicans can return to routine operations, where possible.”