CFE Represents USPACOM at Disaster Response Exercise in Indonesia
03.12.2014
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii, March 12, 2014- A representative from the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (CFE-DMHA) will attend Indonesia's flagship disaster response exercise Mentawai Megathrust in Padang, Sumatra March 16-19. The scenario will center on the nearby Mentawai Islands where a fictional 8.9-magnitude megathrust earthquake will strike and trigger a tsunami.
Jobe Solomon, a disaster management and humanitarian assistance advisor for CFE-DMHA, will represent U.S. Pacific Command in the U.S. delegation which includes representatives from the U.S. Agency for International Development, Pacific Disaster Center, U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Embassy, Jakarta Office for Defense Cooperation.
Exercise Mentawai Megathrust, led by the National Agency for Disaster Management (BNBP), Indonesia, is civil-military and multinational in scope and will include ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states: Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Russia, United States, United Nations, donor agencies and international NGOs.
"This exercise will assess the coordination of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) mechanism from the local, regional and international levels in dealing with a natural disaster," said BNBP Prime Secretary Fatchul Hadi. "This exercise also serves as a venue to implement the [East Asia Summit] Indonesia-Australian Paper: A Practical Approach to Enhance Regional Cooperation on Disaster Rapid Response."
The Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to give the opening remarks.