On Monday 19th of July the Department of Disaster Management and Emergency Services held a ceremony to commemorate the official hand over and commissioning of the DDME’s mobile antenna towers.
There are three mobile antenna towers currently in the Turks and Caicos these will be stationed in Providenciales, Grand Turk and South Caicos with the expectation of more to supply Salt Cay, North and Middle Caicos. A representative of alumni towers, a Florida based company who provided the satellites, noted that the company has been able to build systems that are specifically designed to with stand hurricane conditions. He said they are elated to provide the TCI with equipment that will strengthen the response efforts and communication after a disaster.
The Emergency Communications Manager, Mark Wilkinson, went into detail about the work that went into designing and creating the mobile antenna towers which are meant to provide more efficient communication and its notably long operation time of up to a week without electricity.
Wilkinson added that the mobile antenna towers were built to last much longer that towers that were previously built in the islands. Mentioning that it was important that the systems were able to withstand a hurricane seeing that previous systems were easily destroyed by Ike and Hanna in 2008. The mobility of the systems were also a benefit that the Emergency Communications Manager boasted about stating that transporting the system will be a two person job and takes 30 minutes to an hour to be installed. He also spoke about the regional benefits that would come with the establishment of these systems.
The Acting Governor, H.E. Anya Williams, gave opening remarks where she reminisced on the events of the 2008 hurricane season saying that while she is hopeful that the TCI will experience a less active hurricane season it is comforting and reassuring to have the equipment on hand to handle it, and to never have a repeat of what transpired when connection was lost between Grand Turk & Providenciales.
Minister with responsibility for Disaster Management, Honorable Arlington Musgrove, took a different approach, noting the many missed calls that the TCI has faced in this season but also the many other natural disaster including earthquakes or tsunamis that the islands are vulnerable to. Noting that this is an investment in disaster preparedness and the first step towards a more prepared and capable TCI.
Others in attendance to witness the unveiling were Permanent Secretaries & Deputy Permanent Secretaries along with Acting Director for DDME, Mike Clerveaux who also brought brief remarks.
