I was pleasantly surprised that the government and the opposition are in agreement that we need a “massive" earthquake education campaign to be put in place for everybody living here.

In the Legislative Assembly last week,
following the earthquake last Tuesday, Premier Alden McLaughlin said
there were some things that occurred after the event to now haunt
him.

It would take only twenty-six minutes
between when the earthquake started and the advisory of a potential
tsunami hitting our shores. What would have happened if the
earthquake had occurred early in the morning? There would have been
no one in the Hazard Management Cayman Islands (HMCI) office to
receive or send out any warnings.

The premier said, “Even more scary
than that to me… as I stood in my office on the 5th floor and
looked down at the gridlock outside of cars, had we a tsunami of any
significant proportions, frankly, there would have been hundreds, if
not thousands, of people drowned in their cars, let alone anywhere
else.”

A very, very scary thought. It's
haunting me, too.

“We have to think out of the box, as
Cayman is so flat, how do we manage this sort of situation?” he
asked.

It would seem very few people were
taking any notice of the warnings being issued to stay off the roads
and the reason was simple. Within minutes of the earthquake masses of
people took to their cars to either go home to see if their was any
damage, to check if their children were alright and to pick them up,
or all three. A natural thinking exercise in an emergency. I suspect
the children were frightened and wanted their parents.

Confusion still exists over the way
school officials and teachers acted immediately after the earthquake
and long before the tsunami warning was lifted. Parents were telling
media outlets that teachers were texting them to come and pick up
their children, although I find that very hard to believe.

Officials debunked this and issued a
statement saying, “DES was in constant communication with HMCI and
principals, and once the threat of a tsunami was significantly
decreased, HMCI advised that it was safe to release students.”

This was also confirmed by HMCI who
said In a statement officials said they followed protocol to ensure
the safety of the students and staff. “Thousands of children were
assembled outside in muster points following the earthquake and no
instructions were issued to pick up children immediately.”

They added, “Schools were directed to
keep children in place until after the tsunamis all-clear.”

I wonder how many exercises are
conducted at our schools each year to make sure everyone is aware of
this protocol that is in place? This should include not just the
children but the teachers and parents.

How many of us have been instructed not
to use the roads immediately after a hurricane? And where are the
'safe' buildings we have to run to, to escape the tsunami?

Would Mount Trashmore be one of the
safe places to congregate?

Yes, there are a lot of lessons to be
learned from this. God has been good to us this time around. All of
us know now we need educating.