35th Legislature Critique’s Territory’s Emergency Preparedness
ST. THOMAS - The 35th Legislature’s Committee on Homeland Security, Justice and Public Safety examined the Territory’s state of readiness for both local and wide scale emergencies as lawmakers carve out an agenda on public safety.
2023-02-14 18:47:53 - VI News Journalist
During the session held on Feb. 7th on St. Thomas, lawmakers discussed the strengths and weaknesses of its public safety polices with top representatives from the Virgin Islands National Guard and VITEMA, two of the key agencies charged with managing emergency operations within the Territory.
Senators Franklin D. Johnson and Alma Francis Heyliger inquired about the state of the tsunami warning system. VITEMA Director Daryl Jaschen said that the tsunami warning system, which consists of 44 sirens Territory-wide, has proven a complicated problem to resolve.
“There’s tremendous issues with them,” said Director Jaschen. “We have a tremendous challenge right now understanding the complexities around the tsunami siren.”
The sirens, first installed in 2015, include “a combination of messaging,” according to Jaschen. In addition to the audible siren, the warning devices can relay messages to cell phones via text message or email for residents signed up with Alert VI–VITEMA’s mass notification system. Due to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, all 44 of the sirens were rendered inoperable.
Director Jaschen informed the committee that VITEMA has recovered and assessed each of the 44 sirens but still works to resolve issues with the system. The siren located on Water Island will not sound off despite being tested three times while a portion of sirens on St. Croix’s west-end remains non-functional due to a repeater issue.
Jaschen said that VITEMA will continue to work towards resolving the issues surrounding the tsunami warning sirens with monthly tests. System tests will take place every third Thursday of the month. In addition, VITEMA will conduct a Territory-wide tsunami preparedness drill on March 16th. The drill, dubbed Caribe Wave, will utilize all 44 of the Territory’s sirens and evacuate 165 people to a safe elevation of 80 feet above sea level.
While VITEMA works to solve the issues, Jaschen urged residents in the Territory to make use of the Alert VI system and encouraged redundancies such as the use of bullhorns by the Virgin Islands Police Department.
On a more local scale, a shortage of the first line of first responders–emergency dispatchers–continues to challenge callers and confound committee members and non-members alike. Currently VITEMA seeks to fill 14 vacant 911 dispatch positions.
VITEMA’s Deputy Director of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Merlinda Philomene, said that it has attempted to advertise and fill the positions through the Division of Personnel but struggles to attract “qualified candidates.” Lawmakers in attendance suggested that the agency take more aggressive measures to advertise and fill these critical vacancies.
“You just deal with [the Division of Personnel] and I could almost guarantee you, the majority of the public doesn't,” said Sen. Francis Heyliger. “That's probably one of the reasons why they're not hearing about this.”
Despite the challenges, Major General Kodjo S. Knox-Limbacker, The Adjutant General, and the Commander of the Virgin Islands National Guard (VING) said that the branch “has transformed into a ready, relevant, and responsive” unit to protect the Territory against wide-scale emergencies, whether natural or manmade.
“The Readiness of the Virgin Islands Army and Air Guard is at the highest level of readiness in over a decade,” said Major General Knox-Limbacker.