Students and staff of the St. Albans and Roland Edwards Primary Schools wasted no time in evacuating to higher ground when the alarm was sounded that a “tsunami was on the way”.
The activity was all part of a drill during the annual Caribe Wave exercise which came off yesterday, under the supervision of the Department of Emergency Management and members of the Technical Standing Committee on Coastal Hazards.
Over at St. Albans Primary in Weston, St. James, students made their way along Upper Crick Hill to their evacuation point under the guidance of their teachers after the alarm bell was sounded.
A similar scenario unfolded at the Roland Edwards Primary School as students there also moved towards the farthest end of the playing field to the back of their school, away from the hazard zone.
Yesterday’s scenario involved an 8.7 magnitude earthquake occurring in the Puerto Rico Trench, resulting in the Barbados Meteorological Services issuing alert messages based on information relayed by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre.
It was designed to test the island’s tsunami emergency protocols, emergency communication systems and raise awareness about what should be done in the event of a tsunami warning being issued.