DPH urged to craft tsunami evacuation plan

There is a need for the Department of Public Health to develop concrete plans on the evacuation of hospital patients in case the Emergency Management Office once again sounds the tsunami alert on Saipan.

A resolution passed by the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council noted the importance of ensuring safety of Commonwealth Health Center patients should there be a need to evacuate them during times of emergency as last month’s tsunami warning.

According to the resolution signed by Council Chair Gregorio Deleon Guerrero, a comprehensive evacuation plan of patients is necessitated by the fact that the government-owned hospital is located within the low-lying and coastal area.

Council members were concerned that CHC never tried to evacuate its patients despite the mobilization of EMO and public safety personnel last month following an advisory released by the Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

“While the [EMO], the Department of Public Safety and other personnel were aggressively ordering people to evacuate to higher places, it was reported that the Department of Public Health never attempted to evacuate its patients,” the resolution reads.

It added that CHC and the CNMI government could be facing millions of dollars in a possible class action suit had the tsunami hit the islands and no efforts were made by the DPH to evacuate the hospital patients.

The Council is recommending that public health officials identify a site to where hospital patients will be transported and housed in the event a need to evacuate to higher grounds is called upon should a tsunami warning is once again raised on the island.

Last Nov. 16, EMO mobilized emergency and police personnel to move people to higher areas following reports from Hawaii on the possibility of a giant tidal wave hitting the islands because of a powerful earthquake that shook countries in the South Pacific.

The warning, which drove thousands of people to high-lying areas like the Capitol Hill, Finasisu, San Vicente and Navy Hill, was issued twice but was finally called off when the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cleared the islands of the danger.

The Nov. 16, 2000 warning was the first in five years since EMO last issued similar emergency alert in 1995. (Aldwin R. Fajardo)