Civil Protection, Citizen Security, representatives of military, police, universities, private institutions, among other organizations in the area, held this Thursday the preparatory meeting for the Caribe Wave 2023 tsunami drill, which will be held internationally next Thursday, March 23 at 10:00 in the morning, according to Venezuelan legal time.
Carlos Velásquez, coordinator of the state PC, informed that the evacuation plan for the exercise was presented, during which the response capacity of the citizen attention organizations, primary attention, the institutions involved, the evacuation, the transfer of people to the safe zone, and the operation of a situational room that should be directed by the mayor Julio Rodríguez, as the first municipal authority, accompanied by the commanders and directors of the institutions.
Velásquez recalled that this is the 11th edition of the exercise, whose first action was carried out by Venezuela in the state of Anzoátegui. Sucre began to participate in the second drill.
He said that the idea is to continue improving, perfecting techniques for self-protection, evacuation, concentration sites, shelters and information processing, which, given the collapse of the networks, will be able to circulate through UHF and VHF radios, so that the information arrives immediately at the data processing centers in Cumaná and Caracas.
He invited the local population and the media to participate in the action, which will be joined by the Catholic churches with the ringing of bells starting at 10:00 am.
Possibility
Velásquez admitted that the possibility of a tsunami occurring on the local coasts is always present, given the presence of submarine volcanoes in the Caribbean, such as Kickem Jenny on the north coast of Grenada, Mount Pellé in Martinique, which has already erupted four times.
“We are in the most seismic state in the country, with category 7 and crossed from east to west by the El Pilar fault, and it has given us reason for daily preparation, not only since 1997 with the Cariaco earthquake, but also that before that we were on the streets telling people what to do before, during and after an earthquake”.
He added that they are preparing for a tsunami because we do not know when it might occur, but given the certain possibilities, we must be ready for the fact.
He reported about four tsunamis that occurred on the Venezuelan coast, the last one in Cumaná, about 94 years ago, another on the coast of Miranda and the other two in the Sucre capital, with waves of up to five meters. “Three of them are on the coast of Sucre state, so we must be prepared to act in a situation like this.”
Carupano/ Cecilia Larez