ex-CEO hits weak warning system

FORMER Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) CEO Stephen Ramroop says the ODPM response to recent days of nationwide flooding show systems and mechanisms developed under his stint may have become weak since his departure.

In a release yesterday, Ramroop said, for some reason, the basic communication grids that were created with established print and electronic media, social media, amateur radio associations such as REACT and TTARL, and the early warning systems that included early warning points, hotlines and 911/999/990 systems from police, fire and in Tobago 211 and Tobago Emergency Management Agency etc were somehow not utilised or co-ordinated by the ODPM.

“This is a recipe for chaos and it was seen during the management of (Tropical Storm) Bret and may have caused the ODPM to lose sight of the extent of the incidents as they unfolded over the past few days.”

On Friday, ODPM deputy CEO Dave Williams told a media conference communication was not as fast as it could have been and agencies were not there fast enough, though he described the flooding situation as “a small thing.”

Ramroop, in the release, said all he promised to improve at a joint select committee hearing in 2011 “is possibly becoming diluted and once again ODPM is being battered and ridiculed by a large number of persons for their perceived lack of action and failure to educate and inform using all the available tools, even low-cost ones, in a timely manner.”

“I hope that the ODPM will be given the appropriate resources to do their job appropriately and I stand ready to assist at any time.”