Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency

The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) is an inter-regional supportive network of independent emergency units throughout the Caribbean region. Formed on September 1, 2005 as the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) it underwent a name change to CDEMA in September 2009.

The participating member states and agencies of the CDEMA include:

In recent years, the role of the CDEMA has been mostly to provide assistance to member territories after the passage of particularly fierce hurricanes. Such roll out of CDEMA personnel was witnessed for Grenada and Jamaica in early September, 2004 after the passage of Hurricane Ivan.

During the mid-1990s, the sudden eruption by the Soufriere Hills volcano in Montserrat also caused the CDEMA to spring into action, to provide additional support to the people on the island. The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDEMA) also regularly monitors the Soufriere Hills volcano, in addition to the active undersea volcano named Kick 'em Jenny to the north of Grenada.

In situations of emergency where a military force might be needed, members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and Barbados may likely turn to the Eastern Caribbean Regional Security System [1] for assistance, while then possibly using the CDEMA as a backup support agency to the RSS.

Towards the end of the twentieth century, severe weather had been increasing, especially in the Caribbean region and the Gulf of Mexico. Being able to control and minimize the damage caused by these disasters is critical to life in that part of the world. The world recognized a need to establish an organization to handle natural disasters in that region and in July 1984 the Pan-Caribbean Disasters Preparedness and Prevention Project (PCDPPP) was established. The Caribbean has battled with independence from its mother European countries for centuries and before the PCDPPP came about the traditional way of handling disasters in the area was though private donors, a method that was heavily dependent on others and failing to help their cause for independence.

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