This past Thursday, the National Center for Disaster Prevention (Cenapred) conducted a simulation based on the scenario of a Category 5 hurricane making landfall on the coast of Guerrero. The rainy and hurricane season officially begins on May 15.
David León Romero, head of the National Civil Protection Coordination, described the drill as successful, educational, and confidence-building. It was carried out by the National Emergency Committee, which now declares itself ready to face the upcoming 2019 storm season, which ends on November 30.
The simulation, named Hurricane "Viridiana", lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes and involved 52 experts from 38 government agencies. Participants worked on data analysis, decision-making, and solution development.
As part of the exercise, they generated:
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Two damage assessment and needs analysis reports
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Two live links with the National Communication and Emergency Center
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36 coordination messages for emergency response
“We dealt with scenarios like river overflows, collapsed structures, flooding, hospital evacuations, and highway closures due to bridge failures,” explained León Romero. “Our job during the simulation was to respond in real time and measure how well these institutions perform under pressure.”
León Romero also pointed out key areas for improvement, such as the use of real-time technologies for faster information management, and the need to strengthen media communication protocols to prevent misinformation or fake news from spreading on social media.
He emphasized that hydrometeorological events consume about 80% of the country’s emergency response budget. Just last year, 214 such events were recorded, including 41 tropical cyclones, with 6 making landfall in Mexico.
Source: Excelsior