The National Office of Disaster Services (NODS) has said that the just concluded Caribe Wave Tsunami Exercise was a great success.

Last week Thursday, NODS held an exercise that involved 25 workplaces and schools to include a preschool in Gambles.

NODS said it will build on the efforts started to bring awareness to tsunami readiness in Antigua and Barbuda.

“As part of the activity, participants were required to move to their designated tsunami safe areas after receiving an alert of a mock tsunami warning message on their smartphones via the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), which is the official alerting system for NODS regarding hazards,” according to a statement from the organizations.

Adding, “among the areas identified as safe were the St. John’s Cathedral, the highest point in the Botanical Gardens, the stands at the Antigua Recreation Grounds, and Michael’s Mount. Some educational institutions in the countryside evacuated to nearby hilly areas”.

The event is held each year to test tsunami readiness plans throughout member states of the Barbados-based Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA).

NODS is expressing appreciation to the groups that took part in the exercise and is looking forward to even greater participation next time considering the devastating effects tsunamis can have on communities. The disaster office will expand its education and awareness programs on tsunamis, their effects, and past events that affected Antigua and Barbuda.

Meanwhile, a major concern highlighted during the exercise was the difficulties individuals had downloaded the CAP app on their smartphones.

An investigation by our overseas technical partners reveals that the issue relates to changes to Google Play Store. Work is ongoing to rectify the problem.