On Saturday 28th -29th of November 2015 the Anguilla Red Cross (ARC) in collaboration with other emergency agencies, through its Disaster Risk Reduction Programme, carried out a simulation where a 7.5 Earthquake affected the Eastern side of Anguilla. The St. Maarten Red Cross volunteers were also invited to participate in the two days simulation. The simulation tested the responses in areas of First Aid, Relief, Psychosocial First Aid, RFL assessments, Plan of Actions and Communications. It also tested how the relevant emergency agencies interact with people in the community.
According to Mrs. Sabrina Boodram Public Relations Officer of ARC the simulation assumed that a school bus carrying 12 students got into an accident as a result of the earthquake. Simultaneously in another area in the Community Emergency Response Team carried out a light search and rescue drill looking for victims of the earthquake. On Sunday the simulation continued with the distribution of relief items.
These two scenarios gave the emergency agencies involved the opportunity to identify inefficiencies within the ARC response system, enhance the understanding of disaster response roles, improve collaboration between agencies and test the skills of Anguilla Red Cross volunteers.
The Anguilla Red Cross would like to thank the emergency agencies for their participation and will continue to strengthen the relationship with the responding agencies and the community members.
