Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 07, 2021 (SKNIS): Implementing a damage and needs assessment plan is very important in the context of disaster management. As such, inter-agency teams in St. Kitts and Nevis are tasked with designing such a plan in the event of a disaster.
This was according to Livingston Pemberton, representing the Damage Assessment and Needs Analysis Committee in St. Kitts and Nevis during his appearance on Working for You on October 06 where he discussed the implementation of a Damage and Needs Assessment Plan.
“What we do is that we have what we call teams and they are inter-agency teams because no one institution will be able to do all the assessment,” said Mr. Pemberton. “We provide training for those persons so that in the event they have to carry out the damage assessment they are fully trained and able to carry out the assessment.”
Mr. Pemberton said that a number of entities are targeted to “try to build” the team. Training is offered to persons from the utility companies, the Ministry of Finance and the National Housing Corporation to name a few.
He used agriculture as an example, adding that the sector has its “experts and when we are doing the damage assessment in agriculture, we are expecting the persons, the experts in agriculture to be able to do that and then report up.” He noted that a “final report will be prepared and forwarded” to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) or the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC).
A damage assessment and needs analysis is extremely important as it aims to describe, as quickly and objectively as possible the health impact of an adverse disaster, while considering the response capacity of the sector and determining what additional resources are required to address immediate and future effects.
