WAREHOUSE TRAINING FACILITY...BIG BOOST FOR ODPEM:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JULY 16, 2010

WAREHOUSE TRAINING FACILITY...BIG BOOST FOR ODPEM:

 Prime Minister Bruce Golding has expressed his government's appreciation to the United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM), an outreach division of the USA military, for outfitting the warehouse training facility at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).

 This facility, known as the Renewed Disaster Relief Warehouse is located on Haining Road in New Kingston. The warehouse facility   gives ODPEM a boost towards its vision of being the leading disaster preparedness and management training institution in the region.

Insert audio: Thanks To SOUTHCOM

"Express our thanks to the US Southern Command for the continuing assistance that they have given us in terms of disaster management, disaster preparedness, and on this particular occasion, for the initiative they have taken to helping us streamline, to equip and to provide training for the management of the warehouse facilities that are so important. In a disaster, one of the very first calls that you have is for relief supplies for persons who have been marooned, persons who have been left homeless, persons who have been completely dislocated. It is not something that we must assume is a routine operation; it is very technical work, it is very advanced scientific work to be able, not only to store the critical supplies that you may need to respond to the demands that are made when a catastrophe is upon us, but to ensure that it is done in a professional and efficient way."

 Mr. Golding said that Caribbean neighbours will be able to access the training available ODPEM.

Following the opening ceremony, the Prime Minister toured ODPEM's Haining Road headquarters in New Kingston. The facility was acquired in 2009 from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The Prime Minister noted that the complex, considered to be very secure, has put the agency in a better position to respond during times of national disasters.