ODPM takes blame for slow response

The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management has admitted that disaster management systems failed to warn the public of impending floods due to heavy rainfall and high spring tides, because of an early lack of communication among first responders.

This is according to ODPM Deputy Chief Executive Officer Dave Williams who told reporters yesterday that despite 11 of Trinidad’s 14 regional and municipal corporations being significantly impacted, “for us this is a small thing.”

Williams made the comment in response to a question on whether or not the ODPM’s Mausica national emergency centre should have been activated given the severity of the floods. He said the ODPM received multiple calls about flooded areas, houses impacted by flood waters, fallen trees, downed power lines among other things.

“You see this as a big thing? For us this is a small thing,” he scoffed. Asked if one fails in something small, then what if something big happens, Williams asked reporters to define ‘failure’. “I didn’t fail,” he said. “My communication was not as fast as it should have been. We were out there but the agencies weren’t there fast enough. We were catching up.”

Admitting that the ODPM did not get information to the public in the time it would have liked, he said first responders held a meeting yesterday to review response mechanisms and put new protocols in place so something like this does not recur.

First responders include the Defence Force; Police; Fire; Red Cross Society; disaster management units of regional and municipal corporations and the Ministry of Works and Transport.

Meanwhile the ODPM and the Ministry of National Security have activated their response mechanisms and mobilised resources to assist those in the flood affected areas.

The ODPM, Williams said, is working with the disaster management units (DMUs) of the corporations and the Ministry of Works and Transport to assist the affected communities. The ODPM has also set up shelters for 200 people from the Woodland area and Rochard Douglas Road, Barrackpore in the Penal/Debe region.

The TTDF has deployed two teams from the Regiment’s Engineering Battalion to move those marooned into shelters at Rochard Government Primary School and Woodland Hindu Primary School for a three-day period. The TTFS has also been deployed to assist with flood relief operations in affected areas.

The Works and Transport Ministry is also working on flood related issues in Devenish Hill, Rio Claro Tabaquite; La Lune Road, Moruga; Brasso Seco Area; Arima Blanchisseusse Road; Paria Main Road; Couva Flyover (failed culvert) and is addressing several major landslips on the North Coast Road, Maracas.