As part of dis­as­ter train­ing and pre­pared­ness CARIBE WAVE is the annu­al tsuna­mi exer­cise for the Caribbean and adja­cent regions.
A major objec­tive is for coun­tries and com­mu­ni­ties at risk from a major dis­as­ter to test, eval­u­ate and update their tsuna­mi response plans.
Timed for Tsuna­mi Pre­pared­ness Week in Puer­to Rico on March 21, it had the involve­ment of Seis­mic Net­work (Red Sís­mi­ca de Puer­to Rico), UNESCO, NOAA, the Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (PREMA-AEMEAD), radio ama­teurs and others.
The sce­nario was a tsuna­mi trig­gered by a mas­sive earth­quake. The local radio ama­teurs through­out the island test­ed their com­mu­ni­ca­tions on many island-wide VHF and UHF repeaters.
Sec­tion Traf­fic Man­ag­er Pedro Irizarry KP3PI was on 7.188 MHz, the fre­quen­cy of the dai­ly Friend­ly Net, a pop­u­lar meet­ing place for Caribbean radio amateurs.
Puer­to Rico Sec­tion Emer­gency Coor­di­na­tor Juan Sepul­ve­da KP3CR, not­ed that some oth­er Caribbean island nations had their own CARIBE WAVE activ­i­ty and also checked into the Puer­to Rico net estab­lished on 40 metres.
All of Puer­to Rico’s coastal cities and towns were alert­ed to the event by an Emer­gency Alert Sys­tem acti­va­tion on broad­cast media and sirens began to sound as evac­u­a­tion drills began.
Ama­teur Radio’s role was to gath­er reports on how res­i­dents heard or learned of the Alert, those who heard the sirens, and file reports to officials.
A post-exer­cise report by Puer­to Rico Sec­tion Man­ag­er Oscar Resto KP4RF went to the Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency.
The CARIBE WAVE 2017 exer­cise was declared to be a suc­cess and showed that radio ama­teurs were trained, equipped and ready to play a sup­port­ing role in any disaster.
— Jim Lin­ton VK3PC, Chair­man IARU Region 3 Dis­as­ter Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Committee.