Villages Improve Disaster Response

With USAID’s assistance, residents of the tiny island of Tobago in the southern Caribbean are working to improve the ability of remote communities to respond to natural disasters themselves. Through this initiative, local Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) are helping isolated communities deal with a range of emergency situations like tornados, hurricanes, and heavy storms. Based locally and with state-of-the-art training, the teams can respond in half the time of traditional response services, which are located far from the island’s most remote towns. The program has built a strong reputation at home and abroad. In fact, disaster response officials throughout the Caribbean are discussing the possibility of replicating the program in their own countries. As a result of this training, Tobagonians will be better equipped to deal with natural disasters like Hurricane Ivan, which in 2004 caused landslides that destroyed homes, farms, and livelihoods and left entire communities isolated.

A member of a Community Emergency Response Team takes a call in the Scarborough response center in Tobago. Photo: USAID/Denise Lawrence