Fogo, Cape Verde 21 June 2006

Day 1 Daily report by Evert Somer, civil emergency expert from NATO External link Website of Exercise "Steadfast Jaguar 2006" Multimedia 21 Jun. 2006 - NATO Audio file of the daily audio diary .MP3/1896Kb News 21 Jun. 06 - NATO Inferno threat in exercise scenario The scenario of the NATO Response Force exercise, Steadfast Jaguar 2006, also includes a natural disaster. This opens possibilities for NATO civil emergency planners to play a role in the exercise. The Cape Verde islands are all of volcanic origin and all islands show, to a larger or lesser degree, volcanic activity. The eruption of a volcano is therefore seen by the inhabitants of Cape Verde as one of the major natural risks. During the planning for the exercise the inclusion of an eruption of a volcano therefore seemed to be a logical choice. The island with the most intense volcanic activity is Fogo, which literally means "fire". And the island got this name after a large eruption in 1680. The most recent eruptions occurred in 1951 and 1995. Fortunately with no or only a few casualties, but of course causing major damage to houses and infrastructure and a lot of economic damage. Basically the island Fogo is a large volcano. It rises from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean about 3000 metres above sea level. The top of the volcano is the shape of a bowl of approximately nine kilometres in diameter. And in the bottom of this bowl, also known as the Cha das Caldeiras, we find two settlements, Portela and Bangaeira, with a total population of approximately 900 people. People living in the Cha das Caldeiras grow grapes for wines and coffee. Since the last eruption in 1995 instruments have been placed in the Caldeiras so that the civil protection organization in Cape Verde can constantly monitor and be aware of any changes in the activities at the volcano. In addition, a national emergency plan for volcanic eruptions has been prepared. During the last week, and I'll be talking about the exercise, this constant monitoring indicated that the volcanic activity was increasing. And yesterday, the first day of this part of the exercise, on the 20th of June, the level of alert was reached so that the national civil protection organization, together with the three mayors of the Fogo Island, had to start to prepare the evacuation of the more than 900 inhabitants of the Caldeiras. This meant that the plans on where to temporarily house the people who are living there, for instance in a tent camp, but also how to bring sanitation, water and food, but also how to transport them out of the valley had to be reviewed. And this review also identified a number of shortfalls, which yesterday in the afternoon were discussed with Civil Military Cooperation staff of the NATO Response Force and the representative of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. They all together tried to find the resources that are needed to assist the Cape Verdean authorities if an evacuation would become necessary. But fortunately, this is, of course, only an exercise. But it also gives NATO Civil Emergency Planning staff the opportunity to work together with the Cape Verdean civil protection organization to review their plans and where possible give them advice on how to improve the readiness of the Cape Verdeans to deal with natural disasters.