The documentary 'QUAKE: Haiti in Jamaica', is spurring interest in the vulnerabilities to natural disasters locally and across the region, said producer Bob Harris

Released to coincide with the anniversary of the earthquake which struck Haiti on January 12, 2010, the documentary was funded by NEM Insurance Company (Ja) Ltd and has been aired across the Caribbean.

It was subsequently mounted online, with Jamaica's Gleaner getting more than 2,000 downloads on YouTube. The result has been a flurry of calls to the producer and others associated with the documentary.

"Individuals and institutions have been expressing concerns about their vulnerability to the impact of a major earthquake," Harris stated, in discussing the common theme of the many responses he has received.

There is also consideration for such associated factors such as landslides, liquefaction and tsunamis.

One call regarding the documentary was from a resident of an upscale St Andrew community, who had not realised that the suburban area lies atop a geological fault line.

Another call was from a downtown Kingston institution, located close to the waterfront, and third came from a supplier of emergency equipment, keen on getting a better appreciation of the risks its customers faced.

From across the region, the responses focused on the need for similar assessments of catastrophe preparedness, to that shown in the documentary.

Harris said a caller from Antigua was concerned about risk levels to a similar event. From Montserrat, the concern was about their volcano. In Barbados, the concern was regarding sinkholes, as a home was recently engulfed by one, killing an entire family.

"My goal in developing the film was not just to create a momentary stir," Harris said. "It was aimed at getting individuals to pay attention to where they build and to prepare for the eventuality of a catastrophe."

documentary

Tapping the expertise of Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee, director of Mona GeoInformatics, and Dr Lyndon Brown, head of the Earthquake Unit at The University of the West Indies, the documentary examines how an earthquake emanating a few kilometres west along the same fault, as that of January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, might impact Jamaica.

"The entire island would feel the earthquake," Dr Lyew-Ayee told the audience at the first public viewing of the documentary, at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management in New Kingston on January 11. A risk model developed by Mona GeoInformatics and the Earthquake Unit, for NEM, showed that the impact over 75 percent of the island would be sufficient to cause some structural damage with certain areas subject to particular risks.

"We commissioned the risk model to ensure that our reinsurance programme and our capital were sufficient to withstand 'Quake: Haiti in Jamaica' if it came to pass," Chris Hind, general manager of NEM told the audience.

The study showed that NEM was properly reinsured, but it also indicated that the consequences for Jamaica would be sufficiently serious that the company decided to support the television documentary for public broadcast.

"Far too often, we don't pay attention to the need for insurance and investment in infrastructure hardening to ensure we can survive such events," stated Ronald Jackson, director general of ODPEM.

"What is important for us to focus on is risk mitigation and prevention," he said.