The island’s government office for Crisis Management recently gave the local business community a talk regarding what they can expect from the government in times of crisis and what the government is expecting the business community to do, when/if disaster strikes. Tfu tfu tfu! May nothing ever happen, in the spirit of hope for the best, prepare for the worst!
It was a two-hour presentation, and it did highlight the fact that the island is extremely well-situated as far as Caribbean storms are concerned, and extremely lucky in all other ways.
Seminar-goers were reassured by Nico Arts, Acting Director, and Rino Hermans, Team Member, that proper Emergency Planning is undertaken by the Aruban government, Crisis Management Office, together with the response agencies to ensure that the local communities are assisted and supported.
So basically the government wanted to tell the business community to wake up and write a plan, develop and implement policies that will help in crisis with effective disaster response to guarantee the overall safety of the life and health of the population and the island’s transient hotel guests.
A five step strategy was suggested, pretty basic stuff, it sounded obvious, but difficult to focus on, when the sun is shining and the birds are chirping. It went the following: Understand your organization, write an emergency plan, share your plan, test your plan, and maintain your plan. Tada. Repeat.
While they sat at the Alhambra Ballroom in air-conditioning, sipping coffee and noshing on chocolate chip cookies, the hotels were asked to prepare for an entire menu of natural calamities such as Hurricane, Tsunami, Flooding or Storm Surge, Fire, Earthquake, Power Outage, Interruption of Potable Water Supply, Outbreak of Disease, and mostly write and maintain a sound Business Continuity Plan.
Nico & Rino also showed some slides tripping down history lane: How in February 1942, the burning oil from the Pedernales and the Oranjestad, rolled along the surface of the water, where the tankers have been hit by the first two torpedoes fired in combat by the U-156, a German submarine. That was a man-made disaster, handled well by the Lago Oil Refinery emergency response people, at the time.
I would not remember Hurricane Hazel, in 1954, nor Hurricane Janet, in 1955, but I heard about them dumping water mercilessly on the Northern Caribbean Islands. Apparently, they also left an impression here. I remember Hurricane Lenny well, in 1999, whose tail of tail produced high winds and rough surf, and Hurricane Ivan in September of 2004, who was far away north, but still managed to piss on our heads, and Hurricane Emily in 2005, she just dumped water in the far distance and went to Mexico. Felix was the closest, 78km north of the island, in September of 2007, but he was more interested in Jamaican than in Aruba. Thank you Felix. I remember washing my dogs in honor of Lenny, Ivan, Emily and Felix, just in case they had to huddle in bed with me; I wanted them to be freshly shampooed! We bought some bottled waters and flashlight batteries, and that was the extent of our preparations, at the time.
I wrote a funny column at the time, at least I thought it was funny, about listening to the radio all night, and the announcer for lack of other words, repeating the word Duro, a dozen times, in a desperate effort to describe how hard it was raining.
Nico & Rino also said that hypothetically speaking, tfu, tfu, tfu, the Haiti disaster in 2010, in Aruban terms would go the following:
HAITI, Population: 10 million; Dead: 200.000; Injured: 300.000; Homeless: 1.5 million.
Aruba in a similar scenario, Population: 100.000, Dead: 2000, Injured: 3000, Homeless: 15.000
I don’t know what possessed me to talk about this, apologies to you, but in reality we should prepare. A bit!!
