Georgetown, Guyana , July 1st, 2012 (CDC) - The Civil Defence Commission (CDC), which is the national body tasked with coordinating and preparing disaster risk management activities for the country, on Friday hosted a critical workshop which forms part of preparatory measures for the establishing of a regional emergency plan for Region Three, in its conference room.

The workshop titled Emergency Operations Centre Management (EOC) saw participants from key stakeholders such as government agencies, the disciplined services, and international organisations being trained in the effective and efficient management of an emergency operations centre.

This saw participants being trained in modules such as the role of the EOC in disaster management; designing the EOC; managing the EOC; operating the EOC; use of exercising in evaluating EOC Standard Operations Procedures (SOP); psychological and social climate of the EOC and media relations and briefing within an EOC.

CDC Director General (retired) Colonel Chabilall Ramsarup said that the two-day training coupled with previous and preceding training exercises are very important as they all lead up to the national event  Flood Gate 2012 slated for July 13.

We are hoping to train one region, which is Region Three we also have Regions Four, Five, Six and Nine where information will be coming in from but, the exercise will be simulated in Region Three to test responses, the CDC director general said.

He added that the final training before preparation for Exercise Flood Gate 2012 will be conducted from July 3 to 4 in the area of Damage Assessment and Needs Analysis, a Government Information Agency (GINA) release said.

This exercise will serve to evaluate the work and training being executed thus far by the CDC at the regional and national levelswe will be testing a lot of the plans such as damage assessment and needs analysis, national flood disaster and response planning in particular and the standing operating procedures for disaster management, Ramsarup said.

He explained that whilst the exercise tests the existing plans, at the end, an after action report will be done to ascertain whether or not these plans can be further be updated based on recommendations received.

The objective of course for the exercise is to test the national early warning system, the elements of the various response plans, the activation of the national flood prevention plan, the activation of the national emergency operations centre and standing operating procedures.

Damage assessment and needs analysis plan along with the telecommunication systems, Ramsarup explained.He also said apart from this exercise, the CDC is working towards the establishment of regional plans for all the regions before the end of this year.

We started Region Nine, we are working in Regions One and Three we have another seven  regions to complete and we are hoping to complete all so that everyone can be in a better position, so that in the event of an emergency, whether flooding, drought, tsunami or so, we will be in a better position respond, Ramsarup said.

Exercise Flood Gate 2012, a collaborative activity among the Caribbean Disaster Management Agency, the United Nations Development Programme and the CDC, will test the national and regional response mechanism.