TCI Govt Officials fully endorse DDME App

By Deandrea Hamilton & Dana Malcolm

Editorial Staff

#TurksandCaicos, March 22, 2022 – Three months before the start of the 2022 Atlantic Hurricane Season and the Department of Disaster and Emergencies in the TCI has launched its new mobile app called DDME Alert and you can find it on both the Android and the Apple platforms.

At a ceremony held Friday at the Shore Club and attended by Governor Nigel Dakin; Deputy Governor  Anya Williams; Minister of Immigration and Border Services Arlington Musgrove; Opposition member Alvin Garland and several other members of government and the Royal TCI Police Force, the striking mobile application was launched.

The UK Foreign Commonwealth Development Office had announced it would support the development of an app for the DDME, now the tool is here and provides real time hazard information, weather updates and access to emergency services to islanders.

Minister with responsibility for Disaster Management and Emergencies is Arlington Musgrove, at the launch on Friday afternoon he expressed being impressed but not surprised.

“You know, when I met Team DDME, they wasted no time in telling me they are a force to be reckoned with.  They said they are very small, but they are definitely a force to be reckoned with.  Not only in TCI, but in the whole region.

This app is a good thing and I really want to encourage every turks and Caicos islander, residents and visitors alike to please download this app.

This is very important, especially in disaster, not only in hurricane, but there could be airplane crashing, fires – this app will be able to tell you things like where flooding is.

I want to thank DDME for bringing this app to the people of the Turks and Caicos Islands.  I applaud you,” said Minister Musgrove.

An ‘IM OKAY’ feature to let friends and family know your status in the event of a disaster is another vital feature. A ‘friend walk’ feature allows one to share location with a friend and allows one to be tracked; both are designed to prove useful when communications are limited.

TCI remembers in 2017, when back to back hits of Hurricanes Irma and Maria destroyed over 70 per cent of buildings and cut off vital communication.  These days earthquakes, tsunamis and man-made catastrophes are all equally as possible.

When the Governor spoke, he too acknowledged the hard working DDME team, particularly Joanna Wilson-Forbes and Mark Wilkinson, who he said not only have ideas but have been able to deliver on them.

“It’s intimidating being a small island state in the hurricane belt but there are two amazing things that now give us an edge, perhaps we did not want them to give us an edge.  But the first is because we have had three category five hurricanes in 13-14 years, we’ve got an extremely experienced Government – by which I mean public service and ministers who’ve done this before and will do it well again and a really experienced public as well, who have been through it.

If you’ve got that type of experienced public, the best thing you can do, is give them the very best information so they can make really smart decisions and that is exactly what your application is doing, thank you for that.”

Governor Dakin, who is co-chair (along with the Premier) of the National Emergency Operation Center, NEOC, which is mobilized in the event of any kind of disaster, said the DDME App also gives leaders great information.

The Governor, Nigel Dakin issued a challenged.  For everyone at the launch to get 10 individuals to download the app, asking those individuals to repeat the process for there to be maximum access to the information contained in the hub.

You can download the DDME app at DDME alert in the App Store or on Google play.