Caribbean Disaster Mitigation Project
Implemented by the Organization of American States
Unit of Sustainable Development and Environment
for the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the Caribbean Regional Program

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CDMP 1999 Events and Announcements

1998 | 1999

Last updated 20 April 2001

Index


November 1999: Storm Hazard Mapping Workshops

The Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) has developed atlases of storm surge maps for selected countries and territories in the eastern Caribbean. CIMH conducted two sub-regional workshops, in Antigua and Barbados, to present these maps and to discuss the use of this information in physical and emergency management planning. These maps were produced by CIMH using the TAOS/L storm hazard model. Further information is available on the CDMP Storm Hazard Modeling page and in the National-level Storm Hazard Mapping progress bulletin.

October 1999: Workshop on Curriculum Development

CDERA and the CDMP organized a workshop on the "Integration of Disaster Management into the Curriculum of the Caribbean Universities." This workshop was held in conjunction with the Third Caribbean Conference on Natural Hazards. Those attending represented all three campuses of the University of the West Indies (UWI), The University of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), the United States Agency for International Development Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA), and the Organisation of American States (OAS). CDERA has compiled and distributed recommendations from this workshop.

September/October 1999: Regional Training for Building Inspectors

With support from CDMP, the Barbados Community College conducted a three-week training course for building inspectors. Workshop participants reprepresented building inspectorates in Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Building inspectors play a pivotal role in ensuring health and safety throughout the Caribbean region by ensuring the appropriate design and construction of housing and public and private infrastructure development. The aim of this training was to heighten the awareness and improve the inspectors' skills in interpreting building plans and inspecting construction, leading to greater effectiveness and efficiency on the job. Further information is available on the CDMP Hazard-resistant Construction page.

September 1999: Regional Workshop on Hurricane-Resistant Home Improvement

The objectives of this safer housing workshop were to provide a forum for national policy makers, housing practitioners, and financial institutions to discuss the incorporation of hurricane resistant housing techniques into national housing policy initiatives and to examine financing options that will make funds available to the greatest number of families. By including these techniques at the national level, the majority of families will have the required state-of-the-art construction methods, but more importantly they will have the necessary financing to build or improve their homes to withstand the catastrophic winds and rain of the Caribbean’s deadly hurricane seasons. Presenters/ participants in the workshop included CDMP, CHF, CDB, NRDF St. Lucia, St. Kitts/Nevis Foundation for National Development and the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions.

June 1999: CDMP Final Technical Advisory Committee Meeting, Dominican Republic

The final Technical Advisory Committee meeting for the CDMP was held in early June in the Dominican Republic. The purpose of this meeting was two-fold: to review the workplan for the final six months of the project and to review and respond to an initiation draft of the final evaluation of the CDMP.

June 1999: Regional IDNDR Meeting, Costa Rica

This regional meeting marked the end of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. One of the primary objectives of this meeting was to solicit final comments for inclusion in the IDNDR report. CDMP participated in the main plenary session and helped organize and sponsor Caribbean participation in this meeting.

May 1999: Hurricane Preparedness Workshop for the Hotel Industry, Antigua

The CDMP and the Caribbean Hotel Association will co-sponsored a workshop for the hotel industry on hurricane preparedness in Antigua, May 25-26. Material for the workshop will be based on the CHA/CTO Hurricane Procedures Manual, which was published in 1998 with the assistance of CDMP. This is the second such workshop, following one held in December 1998 in St. Lucia.

March 1999: Workshop on Natural Hazard Mapping and Vulnerability Assessment

During the week of 1 March 1999, the Caribbean Disaster Mitigation Project hosted a four-day regional workshop on Natural Hazard Mapping and Vulnerability Assessment. Over 30 physical planners and disaster coordinators from throughout the Caribbean met to review the development of hazard maps for the major natural hazards that affect the Caribbean, the use of these maps to develop assessments of vulnerability of life and property to these hazards and the incorporation of this hazard information into development planning and control and emergency management. This workshop is a follow-up to the Hazard Mitigation Planning Workshop, which was held in St. Lucia in July 1997.

The objectives of the Natural Hazard Mapping and Vulnerability Assessment workshop were to 1) demonstrate the importance of incorporating hazard maps into planning decisions; 2) provide sufficient information on individual hazards to understand and use maps of those hazards; and 3) guide the use of this hazard information in planning and decisionmaking through vulnerability assessment and multi-hazard analysis. In bringing together disaster managers and physical planners from throughout the region, additional benefits were realized through furthering dialogue both between these professions and within the region on hazard mapping and vulnerability assessment.

Further information is available on the progress bulletin describing the workshop.

January 1999: Landslide Hazard Mitigation and Loss-Reduction Workshop, with particular reference to the Kingston Metropolitan Area (Jamaica)

During the week of 25 January 1999, the Unit for Disaster Studies of the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, held a three-day workshop on landslide hazard mitigation and loss reduction in Kingston, Jamaica. The purpose of this workshop was to demonstrate the magnitude of landslides and related problems in the Kingston area, their direct and indirect effects on society, the constraints they place on current and future land use and the benefits of landslide hazard mitigation. Representatives of a broad range of government agencies and several private and non-governmental organizations participated in the workshop. This workshop was the culmination of the landslide component of the Kingston metropolitan area multi-hazard assessment, which is funded by the USAID/OAS Caribbean Disaster Mitigation Project (CDMP).

The landslide hazard mitigation workshop was divided into three sections: an introduction to landslides in the Kingston area, a field trip to landslide sites and a discussion of mitigation of landslide hazards through development planning. During the first section, historical landslide information and landslide susceptibility maps that were developed under the CDMP Kingston multi-hazard assessment project were presented and discussed. These maps provide a basis for understanding the variability of landslide risk across the Kingston metropolitan area. Presentations on the potential for use of landslide information in development planning were made by the Natural Resources Conservation Authority and the Town Planning Department, as well as by U.S.-based landslide experts. In the presentation by the Town Planning Department, a request was made for assistance in incorporating landslide information into the development orders for Kingston and St Andrew, which will be updated this year for the first time since 1966.

CDMP home page: http://www.oas.org/en/cdmp/ Project Contacts Page Last Updated: 20 April 2001