DEM focuses on communication ahead of start of hurricane season

The Department of Emergency Management (DEM) is focused on strengthening its partnership with the media to communicate hazard, risk, vulnerability information and knowledge to Barbadians.

Director of DEM Kerry Hinds said that as Barbados braces for what is predicted to be another active season, the department thought it prudent and beneficial to all to harness the resources, information and media communities to ensure that the public has the most up-to-date, reliable and accurate information required to make the best-informed decisions on how to protect themselves, family, property and communities.

Speaking at the Media Sensitisation Campaign launch for the 2022 Hurricane Season, Hinds said the DEM recognises that a better-informed community results in a safer community.

“The DEM salutes the many partners assembled here today and others who have signaled their commitment to transmitting valuable information to the public pre, during, post disaster,” she said.

“It is important that we share disaster risk knowledge for the public’s benefit and in so doing ensure that the public understands and acts on this knowledge to enhance their readiness and preparedness efforts as well as your overall circumstances when dealing with multiple hazards and risks,” Hinds said.

During the event which was held at the DEM headquarters, in Warrens, St Michael, a new hurricane preparedness promo involving the media was launched.

Several media managers also delivered remarks highlighting the media’s role in disseminating accurate information prior to, during, and after a natural disaster.

Head of Television at the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Jewel Forde stressed that although the aims of the media and those of disaster mitigation organisations are not synonymous, much can be done to communicate information to the public that will help many save lives, without compromising the independence and integrity of media houses.

“Both the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction and the World Conference have made it clear that hazards do not have to become natural disasters. Humankind is not powerless when faced with the fury of nature. It  has been demonstrated time and again that communications technologies, skills, and media are an essential part of any disaster mitigation policy,” Forde said. (AH)