Turks and Caicos Islands

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5.7.2. Management of Disasters in the Turks and Caicos Islands The Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies is the agency responsible for disaster management activities. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) and hazard and vulnerability assessment are just a few of the activities undertaken by the agency. In their Progress Report on the HFA Goals (Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies, 2010) it is reported that limited budgetary allocations and limited human resources have prevented significant progress on the implementation of DRR plans and activities. The Department has support from community organisations and civil society groups and is slowly making progress to get more national committees on board with DRR actions (Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies, 2010). Political will appears to exist so limitations relate to the immediate cost implications associated with developing and implementing policies that would guide disaster management activities. As a result of the damages from hurricanes Hanna and Ike, the UK Government has granted TCI £5 million (US $7.5 million) for recovery and preparedness efforts. Of those funds, 25% were allocated to health, 20-25% to education, 20-25% to housing and 20% to disaster preparedness (Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands, 2009a). TCI therefore has some financial resources available to them because of their status as a UK Overseas Territory. The creation of a climate change policy and strategy is currently underway and disaster management is hoped to be part of that (Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies, 2010). Finally, the National Development Plan makes very limited mention of DRR, so more advocacy activities will also be needed to help achieve sustainable development goals. Post-disaster Activities TCI and the Department for Disaster Management and Emergencies do conduct regular exercises that help them respond to emergency situations yet at the sector level disaster response plans are lacking, especially for school and hospitals (Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies, 2010). Following the passage of Hurricane Ike (2008) several projects were started with the goal of retrofitting infrastructure in the Education, Health and Disaster Management sectors to provide better protection (Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies, 2010). The effectiveness of the disaster response was evidenced during the passage of Hurricanes Irene, Hanna and Ike where no lives were lost, which is the ultimate goal given the high level of vulnerability. There is a Rapid Needs Assessment Team (RNAT), led by CDEMA, who is deployed to the impacted state to conduct a Damage Assessment and Needs Analysis (DANA) (UNDP, 2011). This kind of skilled assessment team provides a standard assessment procedure across many of the CDEMA Participating States. However, the DANA process is only executed upon the request of the impacted state. Therefore, the assessment information is not available following every disaster and as such, all disaster offices should also have the capacity to execute a post-disaster assessment on their own. In TCI, there was a Hazard and Vulnerability Assessment conducted in 2008 following the major hurricane impacts from Hanna and Ike. However, this was a consultant project and thus TCI could still benefit from improved vulnerability assessment skills in the Department for Disaster Management and Emergencies (Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies, 2010). The requirement for environmental impact assessments (EIA) before many development and protective projects also helps to ensure post-disaster risk reduction activities do indeed reduce risks (Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies, 2010). The deficiencies in funding and human resources create concern regarding the effective enforcement of these instruments, however. 138
Related work in needs and vulnerability assessment is taking place throughout the region. CDEMA’s coordinating activities across multiple countries builds response capacity by taking advantage of the resources and personnel from neighbouring countries. This enhances the response and reconstruction efforts in each country when taken advantage of the partnership. Nevertheless, the need to incorporate the principles of ‘building back better’ must also be a priority nationally so that the post-disaster context becomes an opportunity for building resilience and institutionalizing disaster risk reduction goals. 5.7.3. Technology Technology in the field of disaster management can reduce vulnerabilities through structural protective structures, by way of policies that control or guide development, or through public education that would then change the behaviours that generate vulnerability. Coastal Protection In the Caribbean investments in structural protection are often used to protect coastlines. The use of groynes, breakwaters and sea walls are popular methods to control coastal erosion processes and safeguard development from damaging wave actions. Although these structures do provide some relief, they generally offer only temporary benefits and sometimes also cause negative effects in other locations along the coast. Disaster management practices have also found that structural protection is very expensive and can sometimes worsen the impacts of a disaster when the size of the structure is incongruent with an event (e.g. sea wall structures, if broken or damaged, can add debris and exacerbate flooding and erosion). Further discussion of the structural responses to climate change and SLR and storm surge can be found in the Section 5.6. Technology and Public Education The Government of TCI has acknowledged in the National Development Plan (Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands, 2008) the need to review public knowledge on climate change and the environment. Further to this, they aim to establish a policy and regulatory framework for climate change adaptation and disaster risk management that would also see the commencement of a public education programme on these subjects (Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands, 2008). With such a large portion of non-nationals or immigrants (approximately 65%) (Clerveaux, Spence, & Katada, 2008), the importance of good public education and strong communication networks is paramount for successful risk management. There is no website for the Department of Disaster Management and Emergencies that provides hazard information, shelter locations and other relevant information that community members and tourist may require. There is, however, a new website (www.911tci.com) where residents can register their home location, physical conditions and any medical conditions of residents (Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands, 2009b). The project aims to assist the Department of Survey and Mapping as well as helping the emergency response teams in locating persons during medical or other kinds of emergency (Government of the Turks and Caicos Islands, 2009b). This is a good initiative but in terms of risk reduction it does little to change vulnerabilities. When citizens know that government agencies possess the proper information though, they gain confidence and the process should provoke some persons to assess their risks and consider evacuation routes. This does need reinforcement so that the goal of vulnerability reduction and preparedness can be incorporated into daily activities of both individuals and businesses. 139
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Caribbean Regional Headquarters Has
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4.3.4. Women and Youth in TCI Agric
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6.3. Energy Supply and Distribution
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Figure 5.8.2: Relationship status o
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Table 4.1.2: Availability of water
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The CARIBSAVE Part
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The field work components of the re
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
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UKOT ----------------- United Kingd
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Overview Of Climate Change Issues I
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The field study sites include notab
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coastal infrastructure and settleme
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Perceptions of vulnerability in the
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Energy and Tourism Tourism is an in
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Reviewing and considering the feasi
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4. Local watershed management: supp
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Given the importance of tourism to
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Marine and Terrestrial Biodiversity
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terrestrial habitats for the purpos
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1. GLOBAL AND REGIONAL CONTEXT The
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damages from intense climatic condi
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2. NATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES 2.1. Geog
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Table 2.2.1: Gross Domestic Product
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Figure 2.2.1 shows a decline in per
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oom for expansion of the fin fisher
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The CPA points out that the all-inc
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Table 3.1.1: Earliest and latest ye
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GCM projections of future rainfall
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Table 3.3.4: GCM and RCM projected
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Relative humidity data has not been
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Table 3.6.1: Observed and GCM proje
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Annual Table 3.8.1: Observed and GC
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Annual DJF MAM JJA SON Annual DJF M
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frequency in the last 1,500 years b
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thermal expansion, with only a cons
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particularly affected by higher wat
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Table 4.1.2: Availability of water
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3). Factors which increase the vuln
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4.2. Energy Supply and Distribution
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Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
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Table 4.2.3: Assessment of CO2 emis
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Figure 4.2.3: Evolution of electric
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- Reduce electricity costs and pric
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Figure 4.2.5: Crude oil prices 1869
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Climate policy Figure 4.2.6: Fuel c
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taxes can also be a highly transpar
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number of potential impacts of clim
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4.3. Agriculture and Food Security
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Caicos Islands stems from the fact
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Table 4.4.1: Selected statistics re
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2000). Thus, despite the fact that
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Table 4.4.3: Reported cases of gast
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4.5. Marine and Terrestrial Biodive
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Table 4.5.1: Turks and Caicos Islan
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Status of wetlands Over half of the
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and enforcing adequate coastal setb
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Turtle fishery At least two species
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Vulnerability of coral reefs to cli
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Figure 4.5.4: Unusual amount of Sar
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Figure 4.6.1: Grand Turk, The Turks
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Table 4.6.1: Impacts associated wit
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to identify individual properties,
Page 125 and 126: Figure 4.6.6: Total beach and land
Page 127 and 128: the tourism sector as well, since t
Page 129 and 130: Hurricane Irene (2011) Figure 4.7.2
Page 131 and 132: 4.7.3. Vulnerability of the tourism
Page 133 and 134: greater burden of care as poorer ho
Page 135 and 136: CLIMATE CHANGE EFFECTS DIRECT INDIR
Page 137 and 138: Partnership based on the establishe
Page 139 and 140: each gender group is of the opinion
Page 141 and 142: entity. One of the key resources ne
Page 143 and 144: 5. ADAPTIVE CAPACITY PROFILE FOR TH
Page 145 and 146: The institutional and regulatory fr
Page 147 and 148: 5.1.3. Technology Hydrological and
Page 149 and 150: equested a rate review to rebalance
Page 151 and 152: Table 5.2.1: Average weighted emiss
Page 153 and 154: agree that switching off air condit
Page 155 and 156: Note: Savings costs of energy effic
Page 157 and 158: Vast options exist to reduce energy
Page 159 and 160: 5.4. Human Health 5.4.1. Policy The
Page 161 and 162: Table 5.4.1: Summary effects on the
Page 163 and 164: weaker social infrastructure. Conti
Page 165 and 166: end the Turks and Caicos Islands ar
Page 167 and 168: 5.5.3. Technology A high degree of
Page 169 and 170: Table 5.6.1: Summary of adaptation
Page 171 and 172: 5.6.2. Technology - Soft Engineerin
Page 173 and 174: 5.7. Comprehensive Natural Disaster
Page 175: Table 5.7.1: Enhanced Comprehensive
Page 179 and 180: Early Warning Systems (EWS) An EWS
Page 181 and 182: 50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10%
Page 183 and 184: distributions based on the gender o
Page 185 and 186: significant differences in househol
Page 187 and 188: Table 5.8.13: Source of food supply
Page 189 and 190: 45.0% 40.0% 35.0% 30.0% 25.0% 20.0%
Page 191 and 192: Social Protection Provision Table 5
Page 193 and 194: Table 5.8.24: Sample distribution b
Page 195 and 196: Subsistence Agricultural land (16%)
Page 197 and 198: Resource Importance River / Stream
Page 199 and 200: In the event of a hurricane, 90.3%
Page 201 and 202: Event Hurricane Flooding Storm Surg
Page 203 and 204: Table 5.8.37: Household Adaptation
Page 205 and 206: Assessments focussing on the links
Page 207 and 208: Provide gender disaggregated data a
Page 209 and 210: Short Term Actions Reassess water p
Page 211 and 212: Long Term Actions Pursue the concep
Page 213 and 214: Area Management Foundation (C-CAM)
Page 215 and 216: 6.8. Comprehensive Natural Disaster
Page 217 and 218: The Fire Service is government-run,
Page 219 and 220: 7. CONCLUSION 7.1. Climate Modellin
Page 221 and 222: 7.3. Energy Supply and Distribution
Page 223 and 224: 7.7. Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge
Page 225 and 226: REFERENCES Alcamo, J., Moreno, J. M
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CAREC. (2008a). Caribbean Epidemiol
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Contreras-Lisperguer, R., & de Cuba
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http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUA
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Government of the Turks and Caicos
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Hu, A., Meehl, G., Han, W., & Yin,
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Lime Turks & Caicos Islands. (2011)
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OECD (2010). Taxation, Innovation a
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Stern, N. (2006). The Economics of
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Wetherell, G. (2010). Third Quarter
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