25 May 2012: The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) held Region RAP 2012, a region-wide test of its emergency communications procedures, plans and networks for coordinating response to disasters.

The test, conducted on 25 May 2012, involved the Regional Coordinating Centre at the CDEMA Coordinating Unit (CU), the four Sub-Regional Operational Focal Points and National Disaster Organizations in the 18 participating States.

Region RAP 2012 involved a multiple island strike scenario wherein a hurricane hazard and sea swells affected multiple participating States. Test participants monitored and exchanged information on the alert, disaster impact and post impact phases. Region RAP tested the region’s emergency telephone, electronic mail, facsimile, radio and satellite phone systems, as well as the Internet-based emergency operations system (WebEOC) that allows realtime sharing of critical information among the region’s disaster management agencies. The exercise helped identify areas where the regional emergency telecommunications arrangements need to be improved.

Just prior to Region RAP 2012, the CDEMA CU conducted a training course for CU staff to build skills in operating high-frequency (HF) very high frequency (VHF) and ultra high frequency (UHF) radios during emergencies, and to introduce them to Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) , a satellite-based emergency communications system that permits links with field operations when all other types of communications are incapacitated.

The 18 participating States of CDEMA are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

CDEMA is a regional inter-governmental agency established in September 1991 by an Agreement of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to be responsible for disaster management. [CDEMA Press Release]