Director of emergency services at Jamaica Red Cross, Marcia Sinclair, says over 1,200 volunteers have been trained from across the island over the last year and are ready to offer emergency services. At least 1,000 persons, she says, have been trained in first aid, while 12 have been trained to respond to medical emergencies. Another 50 have been trained as shelter managers and 200 have been trained under the European Commission's Disaster Preparedness Programme (DIPECHO) being funded by the Red Cross head office in Brussels. The newly trained volunteers will add to the corps 20,000 volunteers right across the country.

Food items

"As far as food items are concerned, we operate a virtual warehouse. We have positioned ourselves with one of the biggest food suppliers in this country by paying them a sum of money and they will supply us with items that we will call up on short notice," Sinclair says.

She says the organisation has also stocked up on bedding and other comfort items, as well as hygiene kits and first-aid supplies.

The Adventist Disaster Relief Agency (ADRA) says while it is not well stocked with materials and food supplies this time around due to a drain on its resources last year, it has a solid corps of volunteers which it can draw on if a disaster strikes this season. The church has roughly 2,000 volunteers.

"Although we didn't have a wide-scale disaster, we had persons who became victims of fire, and we responded," director of ADRA, Pastor Desmond Robinson, told The Sunday Gleaner. "We had persons who became victims of floods ... We had the general poor, who without a hurricane, their house needs fixing. So, we didn't keep things in store because no disaster happened."

He noted that the church was initiating a fund-raising drive to replenish its supplies, as well working in conjunction with some large supermarket chains to supply food in the event of emergencies.

Food For the Poor says its warehouses are also stocked for the hurricane season. In a statement, CEO Radcliffe Finzi-Smith said the organisation had enough hurricane relief supplies at its offices in Florida and Spanish Town to support all 16 Caribbean islands and Latin American countries in the event of a hurricane.