Amidst the heavy rain of the past several days, Head of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) Major General (ret) Michael Atherly says that the agency is ready and in an “alert phase”.
He asserted that the CDC is always prepared to support the government and communities, particularly the vulnerable ones. In this light, he related that over the weekend, the commission had deployed to flooded East Coast Demerara communities and distributed water. He said that the fleet of three trucks included a water tanker and they were available until the people “were satisfied”.
The CDC Head emphasized that the agency was on standby and ready to go back at a moment’s notice. He stated that the bad weather conditions and its effects on communities were being closely monitored and further noted that the CDC had done a disaster assessment on the recent flood and handed it to the government.
Atherly pointed out that the CDC was the coordinating agency between state agencies and other disaster response organizations like the Red Cross. He noted that the joint services provide manpower and equipment. “We do the coordinating work,” he stressed. In this vein, he said that the agency has some basic first aid supplies.
Questioned on the disaster response warehouse at Timehri, he stated that there is the initial emergency stockpile but more could not be kept as is the international norm He added that to respond effectively, the CDC needs to intensify cooperation and coordination with the relevant state agencies.
