CDMP Progress Bulletin

Regional Workshop on Hurricane Preparedness

Bulletin Date: April 1997

The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS), under an agreement with the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is executing a five year Caribbean Disaster Mitigation Project (CDMP). Objectives of this project include natural hazard risk reduction and technical training.

For this purpose, the USAID/OAS Caribbean Disaster Mitigation Project (CDMP) and the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hosted the workshop Introduction to Hurricane Preparedness at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida during the week of March 3 - 6, 1997. The workshop was attended by National Disaster Coordinators and National Meteorological officials from 12 Caribbean countries and representatives of the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA).

Project Objectives

The CDMP and NOAA had three main objectives in organizing this workshop:

• To train participants in the proper use and interpretation of National Hurricane Center storm forecasts for use in local storm forecasts and warnings and for formulating evacuation plans;
• to improve communication between Caribbean meteorological officers and Disaster Coordinators in issuing weather warnings; and
• to familiarize participants with a storm hazard assessment model developed by CDMP, the TAOS model, which is installed at CIMH.

Workshop Description

The content of this workshop was based on a standard one-week course taught by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Hurricane Center. The standard course was amended to include more information specific to the Caribbean region and the introduction to the TAOS model. Primary workshop topics covered included introductions to the National Hurricane Center and its operations, the hurricane forecast process and accuracy of forecasts, storm surge, surge modeling (with a focus on the TAOS and SLOSH models), field surveying of surge heights, and hurricane evacuation studies. Hands-on exercises were included in many of these sections.

National Disaster Coordinators and Meteorological officials from the following countries participated in the workshop: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands (Disaster Coordinator only), Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the US Virgin Islands (Disaster Coordinator representative only).

Workshop Results

Based on the evaluation forms and comments made in person by participants, the workshop was well received by all. Highlights included workshop presentations by National Hurricane Center staff responsible for preparation of the actual hurricane advisories and forecasts, the in-depth discussion of hurricane advisory preparation and the inclusion of meteorological officials and disaster coordinators in the same workshop. A need continues to exist in the region for more guidance on tools for making decisions and providing public information during storm events.