?The Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM) will make a presentation on February 3 to the National Security Council (NSC) on its review of plans for dealing with a major disaster in Trinidad and Tobago, National Security Minister Martin Joseph has said. Joseph said the presentation could be brought forward earlier following discussions at yesterday's Cabinet meeting. He explained that more consideration was being given to the ODPM's existing plans and response to catastrophes after Tuesday's devastating earthquake in Haiti.
"We continue to review the ability of the ODPM to deal with an event of this nature," Joseph said at yesterday's post-Cabinet press conference at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann's. Joseph made reference to the recent appointment of ODPM CEO, retired Col George Robinson, "to review the entire ODPM and see how the ODPM is best poised to deal with a national disaster at this time. The ODPM was reviewing the standard operating procedures for the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), evaluating the telecommunications protocols and assessing our understanding and execution of the incident command system, he said. (KM)