General Information:

During 2013 – 2014, CTIC hosted three 1-week sub-regional standard operating procedures (SOP) workshops for ICG/CARIBE EWS Member States in the Dominican Republic, Barbados and Mexico.  These workshops were hosted by CTIC under the UNESCO – IOC / NOAA International Tsunami Information Center (ITIC) Training Programme International (ITP-INTL) and facilitated with the support of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) and the Caribbean Tsunami Warning Program (CTWP).  The trainings targeted Tsunami Warning Focal Points (TWFPs), Tsunami National Contacts (TNCs) and national tsunami emergency responders. 

In support of the regional efforts to advance the development of a comprehensive TEWS, within the Caribbean and its adjacent regions, the 1-week training workshops covered essential topics involved in end-to-end tsunami warning.  The topics included event monitoring and detection, threat evaluation and warning, alert dissemination, emergency response, evacuation, and public action.  Planning and preparedness, and practicing in advance of the real event, are important to familiarize agency staff with the steps and decision-making that will need to be carried out without hesitation in a real emergency.  In this context, the trainings emphasised the development of sound tsunami warning and emergency response SOPs as a key requirement for successful end-to-end warning.  The workshops encompassed an information and feedback session on the proposed Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) Enhanced Tsunami Products which were approved for development by the ICG/CARIBE-EWS VIII (2013) and introduced in the CARIBE WAVE 2013 Exercise and the CARIBE WAVE/LANTEX 2014 Exercise.

• ITP CAR I, 4-8 November 2013, La Romana, Dominican Republic

Representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Haiti, St Kitts and Nevis, Sint Maarten, UK (Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Turk and Caicos), USA as well as regional partners who are permanent observers to ICG/CARIBE-EWS were invited to this training.  This workshop was attended by thirty (30) participants.

The training benefitted from the financial support of UNESCO and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Office for Barbados and the OECS through the Enhancing Resilience to Reduce Vulnerability in the Caribbean (ERC) Project as well as logistical support by the Department of Emergency Management, Barbados (DEM).

Workshop Agenda

• ITP CAR II, 18-22 November 2013, Bridgetown, Barbados

Invitations for ITP CAR II were distributed to Aruba, Barbados, Curaçao, Dominica, France (Guadeloupe, Martinique), Grenada, Guyana, Netherlands (Bonaire), St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela as well as regional partners who are permanent observers to ICG/CARIBE-EWS. This workshop was attended by thirty-four (34) participants.

Funding support for the workshop was provided by UNDP through the ERC Project and UNESCO/IOC with logistical support from the DEM.

Opening Ceremony Agenda

Workshop Agenda 

• ITP CAR III, Mexico City, Mexico, 1-5 April 2014

Invitations for ITP CAR III were sent to Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, France (St Martin, Guyane, St. Barthelemy), Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Netherlands (Saba, Sint Eustatius), Nicaragua, Panama, United Kingdom (Cayman Islands, Montserrat) as well as regional partners who are permanent observers to ICG/CARIBE-EWS. Thirty (30) participants attended this workshop. 

Financial support for the training was provided by the United States Agency for International Development/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance USAID/OFDA, UNESCO/IOC and the Government of Mexico through its Navy Secretary (Secretaria de Marina SEMAR).  UNDP and the DEM provided logistical support. 

Workshop Agenda

 ITIC Intl SOP Training Workshops ICG-CARIBE EWS 2013 – 2014 video