NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (November 22, 2022) — Disaster management officials in St. Kitts and Nevis and their stakeholders are now better able to deal with risk and responses if the federation is impacted by disasters thanks to a visit from Mr. Paulao Fernandes of the Pacific Disaster Center (PDC) on November 18, 2022.

Mr. Brian Dyer, Director of the Nevis Disaster Management Department (NDMD) in the Nevis Island Administration (NIA), noted that Mr. Fernandes, who is the Latin American Caribbean Advisor for the Pacific Disaster Center, was carrying out a National Disaster Preparedness Baseline Assessment while in the federation.

“His main mission was to provide public awareness to both islands and to our stakeholders with regards to the services provided at the Pacific Disaster Center located at the Hawaii University.

“Primarily the Pacific Disaster Center aids St. Kitts and Nevis in providing alert messages with regards to tsunamis and the triggering mechanism for tsunami notification. However, Mr. Fernandes’ mission here was to provide an update to our stakeholders, and to offer a wider array of information that can be housed on their platform and also to seek data from our stakeholders to upload onto their platform to better inform and to have a better handle on risk reduction and responses in the event St. Kitts and Nevis are impacted by disasters,” he said.

Mr. Fernandes expounded on his mission to St. Kitts and Nevis, adding that though the center is based in Hawaii it has a global mission, hence his position there.

“I just came from St. Kitts this afternoon to work with the various stakeholders from the different agencies to talk about data, what data that we have that we can start collaborating with others to run our assessment. Once we have the assessment completed which is called the baseline assessment… we will have findings and recommendations that we can drive forward a better Nevis, a better disaster management community and we can all work at collaborating with the different stakeholders.

According to the PDC, it is an applied research institution which supports the most demanding governmental and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) worldwide.

“For more than 25 years, we’ve helped our partners enhance disaster management capacity, save lives, and reduce disaster losses through the application of our advanced tools and technologies, evidence-based research, and analytical information.

The center’s DisasterAWARE platform is used by tens of thousands of disaster management professionals—from the senior-level decision maker to the operational practitioner. It provides global multi-hazard early warning, hazard monitoring, and risk intelligence to support rapid and effective disaster response, preparedness, recovery, and mitigation. DisasterAWARE includes the highest resolution all-hazards impact models, advanced analytical reports, and augmented information through artificial intelligence. The system features the largest, scientifically-vetted big data catalogue for disaster management decision making in the world—derived in part from PDC’s unique National Disaster Preparedness Baseline Assessment as well as its Global Risk and Vulnerability data,” the center said.