ODPEM Will Provide Emergency Instructions – Minister Mckenzie
By: , September 23, 2022
Photo: Donald De La Haye
Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Hon. Desmond McKenzie (left), speaks at a special meeting of the National Disaster Risk Management Council at the Ministry’s office in Kingston on Friday (September 23).The Full Story
With the country now under a tropical storm watch, Jamaicans are being advised to guard against misinformation and to only follow the emergency instructions from the relevant authority.
Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Hon. Desmond McKenzie, said that “the only authentic authority that can give instructions is the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), which has the responsibility, working with the other agencies, to provide information to the public on a timely basis.”
“We will say when the shelters are to be activated (and) we will say where the shelters are,” Mr. McKenzie pointed out.
He was speaking during Friday’s (September 23) special committee meeting of the National Disaster Risk Management Council at the Ministry’s office in Kingston.
The Minister said that the Government will use the public media to convey information to Jamaicans.
In addition, he indicated that a partnership with the island’s major telecommunications entities, Flow and Digicel, is being formalised, that will allow messages to be sent using their systems.
The Meteorological Service of Jamaica, in its 5:00 p.m. bulletin on Friday, said that the tropical storm watch is in light of tropical depression number nine, which continues to strengthen over the central Caribbean.
This means that tropical storm conditions pose a possible threat to the country within the next 48 hours.
This is Jamaica’s first active weather event since the start of the 2022 Hurricane season.