The V.I. Territorial Emergency Management Agency’s series of town hall meetings on tsunami preparedness will begin on St. John on May 6 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Julius E. Sprauve School, VITEMA announced Thursday in a press release.
VITEMA will also hold town hall meetings at Frenchtown and Red Hook on St. Thomas and at downtown Frederiksted and Gallows Bay, St. Croix, in June and July. The dates and venues for those meetings will be announced in upcoming weeks.
The agency plans to present new information on its tsunami preparedness efforts and to discuss tsunami readiness with residents. Topics include tsunami hazards, tsunami warnings, evacuation maps, evacuation routes and signs, and assembly points.
“VITEMA has made major strides in tsunami readiness with the placement of more than 100 tsunami hazard zone and evacuation signs along coastline areas, the installation of an outdoor siren warning system and the development of the first Virgin Islands Tsunami Evacuation Maps,” VITEMA Director Elton Lewis said. “Our main objective now is public outreach to ensure everyone has the information they need to be ready in the event of a tsunami — especially those who live and work in a coastal community.”
Speakers at St. John’s town hall meeting include Roy Watlington, a St. Thomas scientist who retired from the University of the Virgin Islands after serving 27 years as a physics professor. Watlington is the coauthor of “Disaster and Disruption in 1867; Hurricane, Earthquake and Tsunami in the Danish West Indies.” In 1997, he convened a meeting of global tsunami experts who have advanced tsunami hazard awareness in the Caribbean region.
Other speakers include Irvin Mason, a VITEMA training coordinator and certified tsunami awareness instructor, and Joseph Hodge, VITEMA Emergency Operations Center manager for St. Thomas.
Lewis said, “We encourage everyone to come out and bring their family and friends. The information being provided is vital and may one day save a life.”
For more information about the tsunami awareness town hall meeting on St. John, call Linda Williams, St. John Emergency Operations Center manager, at 776-2244 or e-mail linda.williams@vitema.vi.gov.
