THE Civil Defence Commission (CDC) as part of efforts to improve its response to disaster management, on Wednesday, met with representatives of the Florida National Guard.
The aim of the discussions was to foster future collaboration to enhance Guyana’s disaster management and preparedness strategies.
CDC’s Director-General, Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig, and high-ranking members of his staff, met Adjutant General of the Florida National Guard, Major General James Eifert, and his team at CDC’s Alternate Emergency Operations Centre and Warehouse at Hyde Park, Timehri.
Major General Eifert has responsibility for the overall management, readiness, and mobilisation of both U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force elements of the Florida National Guard.
Craig called the meeting “noteworthy” in improving relations between the two countries. He said shared knowledge and training would only improve the disaster preparedness response of the CDC.

He noted that since the CDC’s establishment in 1982, its mandate continuously expands with Guyana’s growth, which has seen the organisation being prepared for common natural disasters such as floods, and now with the budding oil and gas sector, oil spills has been added to the list.
“We at the CDC have a mandate to respond to oil spills. We respond to drought, we respond to flood, we respond to health issues all across the 10 administrative regions. It demands more, so what we try to do with these types of visit is to strengthen relationships so we discussed a number of areas where we can have further discussion for support in the areas of search and rescue and oil spill response,” he noted.

He further stated that while the visit was just to “break the ice” for future initiatives and collaboration, the CDC is happy with the response to some of what was presented to the visiting team.
“The main purpose of today is mainly to collect and start discussion for future support for Guyana. It wasn’t a meeting to make commitments, it was an engagement to start the discussion for future support and I think that we are happy in terms of what we put on the table and we’re happy with some of the responses they give and it’s just now for us to follow up in terms of planning and executing of those activities,” Craig said.
Meanwhile, Craig stated that one of the major collaborative initiates in the works between the CDC and the Florida National Guard is the opportunity for an “inter-country expert exchange programme”. Expounding on the programme, Craig stated that it is hoped that US experts in specific areas of disaster management will be sent here to provide knowledge and training to the CDC members. He noted that Guyana’s CDC staff would also be expected to provide their expertise to the US military disaster management operations.