Students of Graydon Sealy Secondary School during the evacuation process, which formed part of the tsunami drill held in recognition of World Tsunami Awareness Day.
In recognition of World Tsunami Awareness Day, the Graydon Sealy Secondary School participated in Exercise Wash Ashore, a tsunami drill that saw all 926 students and the accompanying 90 staff members, being evacuated from the school, at just a moment’s notice.
The exercise, which was well executed, took place just after 10:00 a.m. yesterday. After an alarm sounded, staff and students swiftly exited the school located at the Garrison in St. Michael and made their way over to the selected assembly point at Restoration Ministries in Gunsite Road, Brittons Hill, St. Michael.
School principal Beverley Bancroft and Head of the Arts Department, Lt. Commander John Walcott, later explained to The Barbados Advocate that whilst staff and students had a heads up that a drill would take place at some point in time within a two week period, only about three persons or so knew the exact day and time the activity was scheduled to take place.
“With the Health and Safety Committee that we have at the school, we have to do drills, not only for tsunamis, but for fires as well. The (drills serve) to let the students understand that they have to look after themselves and follow directions, that is the only way that we can keep them safe,” Bancroft explained.
“So we planned this one, but it is not the only one that we have had. We’ve done one or two small ones before, to see how fast they could get downstairs, but this is a major one today and we will have others,” she added, noting that the team worked well and the drill was executed with precision.
John Walcott meanwhile added, “We had a staff meeting and we briefed the staff as to what we were doing. We identified which groups would use which stairs etc. and we identified the stairs by letter. We said that it would happen within two weeks and only probably about two or three people knew what was happening this morning, so people would know how to respond and not react.”
“We (had) to control the flow and we had to make sure that the children walked briskly, didn’t run and everybody knew where the (main) exit point was. We were able to get everybody downstairs in five minutes and they reached here (at the church) in sixteen minutes,” he revealed.
Pastor and Co-Founder of Restoration Ministries International, Senator Rev. Dr. David Durant said he was happy to accommodate the students and he too was pleased with how the drill was executed. On hand to assist with yesterday’s exercise were members of the Department of Emergency Management, the Royal Barbados Police Force, the Ministry of Education, a Rapid Response Team, the St. John Ambulance Association and the Barbados Citizens Band Radio Association. (RSM)