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Building capacity to manage emergency operations in Palau

Monday, 01 September 2014 15:18 administrator
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Participants from Palau Government departments, Palau Red Cross and the media attended training last week on establishing and managing Emergency Operations Centers.

In 2012, Typhoon Bopha impacted Palau and affected hundreds of people and destroyed 70 homes, displacing 131 people, while in 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan devastated the whole northern-most state of Kayangel, destroying 39 homes and severely damaging dwellings from Babeldaob to Koror.

These two events highlighted a need for Palau to increase the number of personnel trained to manage the response to emergencies and to work in the National Emergency Operations Center. The Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), through support from the European Union project, Building Safety and Resilience in the Pacific, is working with Palau to address this need by providing training in Emergency Operations Centers for 17 representatives of government, civil society and the media.

Ms Priscilla Subris, Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Office, opened the week-long training by stressing the importance of all agencies working together and thanking participants for taking the time ‘to learn how to be part of Palau’s response to future emergencies’.

On behalf of the Republic of Palau, Ms Subris also expressed appreciation to the European Union, the Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States and SPC for making the training possible.

The National Emergency Operations Centre, which was the venue for the training, was constructed with the support of the EU and under the supervision of the SPC through a multi-country project called: Disaster Risk Reduction in Eight Pacific ACP States. The centre was completed in May 2011.

During the training, participants studied the establishment and management of Emergency Operations Centers. They learnt about the facilities and equipment needed to ensure smooth running of a center, and staffing requirements and staff roles and responsibilities.

Information management – essential for effective decision making – was also covered in depth. The training ended with a five-hour table-top exercise in which participants put their new skills into practice in responding to a simulated emergency.

The training was supported by the European Union and implemented by SPC as part of the Building Safety and Resilience in the Pacific project. The purpose of the project is to strengthen the capacity of Pacific Island countries to address existing and emerging risks posed by natural hazards and related disasters, while maximising synergies between Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) strategies and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA).

For further information please contact: Ms Priscilla Subris, Coordinator, National Emergency Management Office ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it );
or Noa Tokavou, Disaster Risk Management Officer (North Pacific), Secretariat of the Pacific Community ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Last Updated on Monday, 01 September 2014 15:23  

Newsflash

16 April 2013 - A survey of the South Tarawa lagoon has revealed some potentially explosive secrets from its past as one of the major battlegrounds of WWII. The survey was designed to identify battle debris that still litters the floor of the lagoon seventy years after the infamous Battle of Tarawa in 1943.

Funded by the New Zealand Regional Ocean Sciences Grant, the survey was undertaken as part of the Government’s work to reduce the atoll’s damaging reliance on beach mining by identifying potential sources of construction aggregate on the floor of the Tarawa Lagoon. The widespread practice of beach mining has been weakening the atoll’s vulnerable shoreline along with Government efforts to protect communities from the worsening impacts of climate change and rising sea levels.

The Government turned to SOPAC, the region’s Applied Geoscience & Technology Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, for guidance on safe methods to dredge an alternative source of sand and gravel from Tarawa’s southern lagoon. Before dredging can begin, as part of the European-Union funded Environmentally Safe Aggregate for Tarawa (ESAT) project, SOPAC first needed to identify any potential problems that might be posed by any unidentified and unexploded ordnance.

During WWII, the islands of Kiribati saw some of the Pacific’s bloodiest encounters.  From 20-24 November 1943, an invasion flotilla of 18,000 US Naval and Marine Corps troops attacked the fortified Japanese garrison on Betio in Southern Tarawa. The 4,600 Japanese defenders fought almost to the last man, and more than 1,000 Americans lost their lives.

SOPAC’s Survey Leader, Geophysicist Robert Smith, is still analysing the data but he has already identified two previously unknown vessel wrecks and unearthed numerous artillery remnants. Of the vessels, Smith says, “These may be sunken Higgins boats, which would have carried 20-30 marines each.” The US government has already expressed a keen interest in Smith’s findings.