‘A list in someone’s head is not a disaster plan’

WITH the start of the Atlantic hurricane season just days away, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has charged the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development to put into action its plans for the season by carrying out drill exercises across communities.

Holness, who was speaking at the National Disaster Risk Management Council meeting on Wednesday at the Office of the Prime Minister, argued that “a list in someone’s head is not a disaster plan”.

He added that strategies should be practised by community members, as they are only effective when exercised.

“A plan that has not been exercised is only a document, and that is something, Minister [of Local Government Desmond McKenzie], that I need to see happen. Drills. I don’t see a lot of drills happening. I’m hopeful that during this season of preparedness that you will do some drills,” Holness said.

“One person may have the information written in a particular way and the other person has the information in another way. The two pieces of information cannot sync. So, one document may have the person’s home number, for example, that they need to call in the event of an emergency, and another document may have the person’s work number. And you’re trying to get the person, and you can’t get the person because you’re calling the wrong number. But in a drill, you would pick these things up,” added Holness.

He charged that community resilience is the foundation of national resilience but if information to aid disaster relief support is not properly publicised, readiness at the national level is inadequate.

“Strong agencies matter but if households are not prepared, shelters are not known, vulnerable persons are not accounted for, and evacuation plans are not tested, national readiness is incomplete. The Ministry of Local Government, municipal corporations, and parish disaster committees must organise, document, test, and share local knowledge before an event,” he said.

Highlighting that Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall on October 28, 2025, exposed a gap in organised community effort and resource, Holness added that parish and community systems must be strengthened enabling them to sustain themselves for the first 72 to 96 hours after a disaster.

“There are many stories of persons who fell ill during the hurricane because they didn’t have their medicine. Elderly persons who didn’t have their medicine or couldn’t administer their medicine because their roof was blown off and their medicine got lost somewhere. If it were a policy that within the communities you have local, well-organised emergency environmental youth groups, for example, who could take on this role to assist, you could save many, many more lives. We need to be thinking more along this line,” said Holness.

The suggestion was welcomed by McKenzie who told the Jamaica Observer that it will be implemented in collaboration with the Social Development Commission (SDC).

“They will play a critical part of the whole disaster preparedness apparatus going into the hurricane season. Based on their reach in terms of community organisations, they are going to be critical in the new dispensation,” McKenzie said.

“We have identified the various community groups already, because there are parish development committees (PDCs) right across the country, which fall under the SDC. And there are also community-based organisations that we are going to be tying in, and working with the output of the municipal corporations in strengthening those areas to conduct the necessary drills.”

He added that under the Youth Summer Employment Programme (YSEP), the ministry had begun identifying vulnerable communities and vulnerable people.

“This year, we are going to be giving YSEP employees — about 250, across the country — to work specifically in the area of disaster preparedness and to assist in the various areas right across the country. The full roll-out of it will come in the middle of June, going into July, when we will intensify and have the first round of the drill exercise,” said McKenzie.