Early warning siren system for disasters to be established

Measures are being put in place to establish a siren system to provide early warning in the event of a disaster.{{more}}

Bernard Marksman, director general of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Red Cross Society, said at the opening ceremony of the Tsunami Smart seminar last week that the Red Cross has recognized that there is need for communities to be more disaster ready.

No date was revealed for the commissioning of these sirens but when implemented, persons will be able to hear them as far as one to two miles away, Marksman said.

“However though, before that is done there needs to be quite some bit of training,” Marksman said.

“Here is where NEMO (the National Emergency Management Organisation) and I believe when we approach Dr [Richard] Robertson (a Vincentian geologist at the Seismic Research Centre of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad) he will be better able to assist us with how to set up and how to train the individuals,” Marksman further said.

He said the system would have to be set up in such a way as to have a different warning sound for different disasters.

He further added that an understanding of the meaning of the various siren sounds must be developed for the successful implementation of the system. (AA)