PM Douglas wants NEMA to review disaster plans to deal with earthquakes

Haiti’s earthquake damage

ST. KITTS, MARCH 3, 2010 (CUOPM) – St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas wants the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to review its national plans for dealing with an earthquake.

“There is a wave of volcanic activity that is taking place in this region and so I would want to send a call to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) that they should begin to review the Federation’s own capacity to deal with an earthquake strike,” said Prime Minister Douglas during Tuesday’s weekly call in radio programme “Ask the Prime Minister.”

Dr. Douglas responding to a caller said St. Kitts and Nevis has to take stock of its disaster preparedness plans to deal with earthquakes “and not just hurricanes during the hurricane season.”

Chile’s earthquake damage

Recent catastrophic earthquakes in Haiti and Chile have caused massive destruction and loss of life.

A devastating earthquake measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale struck Haiti on 12 January 2010. The Haiti government estimates that one million people have been severely affected by the earthquake and more than 200,000 people have died. Hundreds of thousands are in urgent need of assistance.

In Chile, rescue crews continue to frantically search for survivors from the 8.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the country to its core Saturday morning, killing more than 700 people.