Importance of Unified Support in Jamaica’s Recovery Highlighted

As Jamaica continues its recovery following the passage of Hurricane Melissa, the importance of unified support in strengthening the country’s response and long-term resilience is being highlighted.

Team Lead of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Operations Support Team within the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Major General Rodney Smart, said that having national, regional and international support after any major disaster is essential to the recovery process.

He was speaking at a recent briefing at the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), located at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), in Kingston.

“When a country has been hit by a hurricane such as Melissa, you really need to get that support; you can’t do it alone. It’s what we call in the disaster management community, a level-three incident,” said Major General Smart.

He acknowledged the contributions of the United Nations system, CDEMA, parish disaster coordinators, the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), Ministry of Labour and Social Security, other local authorities, volunteers and the media.

“It is really a lovely coming together of Jamaican agencies with regional and international agencies… . They really have been providing the direction for how we are going to solve this long-term problem,” said Major General Smart.

He informed that CDEMA’s involvement began even before the hurricane made landfall, with personnel embedded at ODPEM to support Jamaica’s preparedness efforts.

Following the impact on October 28, additional specialists were deployed to offer support across several areas.

“In summary, CDEMA would have sent individuals here first to provide support to the NEOC in the event Melissa hit Jamaica… and following the passage of Melissa… . After an assessment was done by the new Director General [of ODPEM] a request was made to bring in additional persons – persons who had technical knowledge in areas such as running the NEOC and bringing groups together,” said Major General Smart.

He added that professional logisticians were also among the expertise brought in to help the country with its recovery.

“CDEMA has a logistics system called the CARICOM Logistics System (CLS) and that system was used to help secure inventory, store the inventory and to move the inventory into the fields, those resources that were critically needed,” Major General Smart informed.

The CDEMA Team Lead further indicated that being a former Chief of Defence Staff of the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force as well as a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management, he was also able to provide strategic guidance to the newly appointed Director General of ODPEM, Commander Calvin Gayle.

“There was a feeling that with my background as well as my knowledge of when I was here in 1988 for Gilbert, it would have provided Commander Gayle with some good strategic support. I was a sounding board for ideas he may have,” said Major General Smart.

“I also would have been suggesting ideas to him that he would have taken or not taken and incorporated as he saw necessary to help the whole improvement in the system and the delivery of disaster management services to the people of Jamaica,” he continued.

Major General Smart also indicated that he provided guidance to the JDF personnel who led the NEOC in an effort to strengthen the work they were doing.

He further hailed the nation for its advancements, thus far, in its recovery process.

“I want to commend Jamaica for the work that it has been doing and for the new Jamaica that we will see rising out of the ashes,” he said.

Major General Smart along with other members of the CDEMA delegation who have been on the island for more than 20 days departed earlier this week. However, the team responsible for emergency communications will remain on the island for an extended period.

CDEMA is a regional intergovernmental agency for disaster management in CARICOM.