BVI shares territory’s story at hurricane conference in US
As the start of the 2019 hurricane season draws nearer, British Virgin Islands’ story of resilience is being further shared with the international community.
A local delegation is currently attending the National Hurricane Conference (NHC) in New Orleans, Louisiana.
“As we recover from these [weather] events, we must use these opportunities to tell others about our recovery efforts and the strength of our Disaster Management Programme,” Director of the Department of Disaster Management Sharleen DaBreo said.
She continued: “It is for this reason that we are seizing these opportunities to present how we are building resiliency and using the lessons learned from the past … because we have an important story to tell.”
Some 2,000 representatives from the United States, the Pacific Islands and the Caribbean are attending the event.
Part of the conference will be geared towards training and sharing ideas and the best practices to prepare, respond, mitigate and recover from a hurricane, a government media release on the conference has said.
There will also be room for the territory to collaborate with global partners.
“This conference will see several one-to-one meetings including Emergency Communications Manager at the Department of Disaster Management, Jasen Penn’s meeting with Colorado State University Department of Atmospheric Science Researcher Phil Klotzbach,” the release noted.
“[Klotzbach] is the lead author of the university’s annual Atlantic Basic Hurricane Forecasts, as well as with forecasters from around the world who pay a role in guiding preparations for the annual hurricane seasons,” it added.
In the meantime, Director of Projects with the Ministry of Finance, Dr Drexel Glasgow shared how the British Virgin Islands implemented a comprehensive Disaster Management Plan and how it now guides the ongoing recovery process.
Other members of the delegation include Acting Deputy Director of Project Implementation and Operations with the Ministry of Finance, Ellsworth Phillip and Acting Deputy Chief Information Officer, Natalie Hodge.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the United States Agency for International Development through the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency sponsored the trip.
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All a lot of BS. It’ll be the same as Irma if another hurricane strikes. No shelters, no water, no food., insurance companies not paying and the government on vacation in Miami and Orlando
They would have been better to send them to VG to learn why VG recovered so much faster than the rest of the BVI. The main reason was the government left VG to fend for itself and the people banded together and got on with repairs and relief .
Belongers and non belongers all came together to help their neighbors instead of waiting for government handouts. The key to recovery is the people getting off their butts and helping.
And a few very generous billionaires…..helped VG out.
The Billionaires helped VG. Which I am proud of because these same billionaires VG people use to talk about in such a bad way.