“Quake: Haiti in Jamaica,” a documentary focusing on the implications on Jamaica should the island experience a similar earthquake as the one which struck Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010 premiered to launch Earthquake Awareness Week in Jamaica.
According to Bob Harris, producer of the film, the documentary attempts to detail what happened when the 7.0 magnitude Haiti earthquake struck, and projects how Jamaica might cope with such an event.
“Our goal in producing ‘Quake: Haiti in Jamaica,’ is to highlight the vulnerability of Jamaica to the threat of a major earthquake,” Harris said. “While structures in Jamaica are more soundly built than those in Haiti, there is great risk to property and life because people have chosen unwise locations on which to build.”
He spoke at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), where the documentary premiered recently.
“The disaster in Haiti occurred along the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault zone, which runs through the Plantain Garden River basin in Jamaica, through Haiti and into the Dominican Republic,” Dr. Parris Lyew-Ayee, director of Mona Geoinformatics said.
Also present to bolster awareness about the importance of insurance Chris Hind, general manager of NEM Insurance Company of Jamaica Ltd said:
“We want Jamaicans and the wider Caribbean community to be informed about what took place in Haiti and its implications for the region.”
He pointed out that his company provided support for the film because earthquakes are a “fact of life for the nationals of the Caribbean basin.”
He added: “We need to learn how to mitigate their impact.”
Soldiers from the Jamaica Defence Force who were among first responders to Haiti also attended the premiere. They shared experiences they encountered after the aftermath and during the recovery process.
