Regional disaster response teams gather for Event Horizon 2025

By Christopher Tobutt

The Agricultural Pavilion in Lower Valley was the scene of some serious disaster-response exercises – with the Cayman Islands Regiment, the Jamaica Defence Force, and the Turks and Caicos Regiment. There were big marquee tents on the grounds, and Her Excellency the Governor Jane Owen, Deputy Governor Franz Manderson, and other dignitaries senior officials welcomed the members of the various contingents.

It was the opening ceremony for Event Horizon 2025, which runs from January 10 to January 19, 2025. The primary purpose of Horizon Operation is to enhance regional cooperation and readiness in disaster response and humanitarian aid. It aims to ensure that participating countries can effectively work together during emergencies, providing a coordinated response to natural disasters and other significant events

Director of Hazard Management Danielle Coleman said: “Event Horizon 2025 is a regional exercise that takes place annually. We have 14 participating countries, and the exercise is organized by the Jamaican Defense Force, and the Maritime Air and Cyber Command Unit, in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime, and also, the Canadian Government has been very much involved.

“There are several different scenarios organized across the Caribbean, two of which are being held in Cayman both on the Land and the sea. The exercise you are involved with today is humanitarian aid and disaster response, and maritime search-and-rescue, which involves a Twin Otter plane going down between Grand Cayman and Little Cayman.

“There’s also an exercise in Maritime Safety, involving a vessel transporting drugs to the Cayman Islands. We are trying to test everything we possibly can, ….to ensure our responses as we work together are effective.”

Coleman said that, during the exercises this week, there would be deliberately orchestrated  ‘unforeseen’ difficulties that would test the readiness of the team to react quickly. “Everything will not go smoothly,” she warned them.

Her Excellency the Governor, Jane Owen who is also the Co-Chair of the National Hazard Management Executive, said: “This morning it really does feel like it’s a huge regional effort  It’s a very important moment for us here in Cayman, and an opportunity to remind all of our citizens – and I’m sure you’ll be doing this in Jamaica and TCI and the Bahamas as well, just how important it is to do these exercises to be aware of how we can be better prepared and how we can support each other.

“The United Kingdom is a pretty small set of Islands, but nothing compared to how small our islands are – and the Bahamas too - you can very quickly in our region be overwhelmed by some kind of event, whether is natural or manmade.

“That means, very quickly, you’re going to be turning to your neighbors, to your partners. The UK will always be there for Cayman - we’d like to work with our friends and partners in the Commonwealth and Caribbean, but we’re not as close as the people in this room are, to be able to help each other.

“So, I think this exercise is about working together and testing the relationship between the military, the defence forces, the Regiment, and the civilian authorities, and that seems to me really, really important. So its really great to have defence force representatives to partner this week. It’s going to be a great test about how we work together.