On Monday, Lt. Governor Jonathan Johnson chaired a Hurricane Disaster Planning meeting and called upon all Emergency Support Facilities to attend. Johnson informed the team that there was a new comprehensive disaster plan being developed. However, for the time being the old disaster plan is still in effect and will re-distributed by the end of August, 2009.
Various departments were called to the meeting such as Public Works, Health Care, Police, GIS, Airport, and Harbor offices. Currently there are approximately 12 ESF (Emergency Support Facilities) that make up the Disaster Team on Saba. Johnson stated that, "During the previous hurricane Omar, the police were not aware of who had authority to travel to different disaster areas such as the Fort Bay". To rectify this, Johnson is going to issue authorization passes for the ESF’s ahead of time. Furthermore, the ESF’s will be supplied with an emergency cell phone which will pre-program all other ESF numbers.
The Marines have already performed some training measures with radios at the schools to ensure there is communication between Saba, Eustatius, and Sint Maarten. The Marines will come back at the end of August to do further training. During the last hurricane, the Marines arrived late. To compensate for this, Johnson plans to implement an "Advance Party" who will come to Sint Maarten ahead of time which will provide Saba with readily available assistance.
In this hurricane season, Lieutenant Governor Johnson strongly urges the population of the Island to "be safe, use common sense, and stay indoors for your own safety".