Sometime within the last 2 – 3 months, the police announced that they had devised an emergency plan to evacuate persons and vehicles from Bridgetown, and that they would put it to the test soon. At that time they stated that the date and time would be unknown to the masses to ensure that the process of getting over 100,000 vehicles out of the City would be as realistic as possible.
What a surprise then to see, on the back page of today’s Daily Nation, a story which reveals that the time and date of the test will be this Wednesday at 3pm. Will the police be able to predict when the next disaster will occur, so the everyone will be at the ready to leave Bridgetown and the outskirts at the appointed hour? Heck, some may decide not even to go to work that day or to leave at 15 minutes prior to avoid the chaos (as I am sure will happen with the test on Wednesday).
Furthermore, how will persons in Bridgetown be alerted that there is an evacuation – will it be by word of mouth (subject to rumour-mongering), on the radio and TV (not everything has the luxury of listening to then during the work-day), a siren placed strategically in the City (does one already exists)?
Also, how does one ensure that everyone leaves? If you know that it is a test, what would prompt you leave your desk to be possibly stuck in traffic for hours? You could easily complete your work day as normal and have an easy drive out at 4:30pm.
Much like a fire drill, this evacuation test should be unannounced, to ensure that police can better gauge persons actions and reactions and be able to fine-tune their efforts in case a real disaster occurs and the procedure takes on real-life proportions.
