The Disaster Unit of the St. Catherine Parish Council addresses all aspects of Man-made and natural disasters such as Earthquake, Fire, Flood, Hurricane and Freak Storm.
The Unit is responsible for monitoring disaster within the parish, preparing Parish Disaster Plan and ensuring public education such as shelters for the public, disaster prone areas, educating the public on precautionary measures for disasters, conducting simulation exercises and establishes emergency shelter for mass care relief
The Parish Disaster Committee meets at quarterly intervals or as considered necessary by the Chairman.
This Unit communicates all plans or revisions to the ODPEM and develops programmes for the rehabilitation of disaster victims. Also they ensure plans exist for taking care of special groups (physically challenged, aged, etc.) and institutionalized population in an emergency. They formulate a system for the equitable distribution of critical food items arriving into the Island after a disaster and a policy for pricing these goods. The Unit even assist in preparing, participating in and assessing joint annual exercises with all response services of the NEO, and submit after action reports to the ODPEM.