Above: a hotel in Negril, Westmoreland

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Thanks to $1 million in financial support from the Canadian International Development Programme, residents of Jamaica’s Westmoreland and McNeil Lands have been trained in disaster response and preparedness, particularly earthquakes and hurricanes.

The three-year project aimed to fund micro-disaster mitigation projects throughout the area.

According to Reverend Hilma Tate, the disaster preparedness coordinator for the parish, the training was designed to empower residents to be “guardians of their fellow residents and also of their total environment.”

“I am pleased with the level of training that the participants were engaged in and I am confident that they will play a vital role in seeing to the safety and rescue of citizens in the event of any disaster,” Tate said.

The residents were trained in basic community management, land search and rescue, first aid, swift water rescue and other skills.

“These persons that were trained from areas known to be serious disaster areas, especially the McNeil Lands community that constantly experience flooding, are educated and in a better position to help each other in the community if and when we have a disaster, such as a hurricane or earthquake,” said Bertel Moore, Mayor of Savanna-la-Mar.

Westmoreland is Jamaica’s westernmost parish.

Last week, Jamaica’s Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management, which implemented the training programme, held an earthquake and tsunami drill in Jamaica’s Old Harbour Bay.