The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) is a government agency which operates under the authority of Cabinet Office.
An organization that anticipates the potential negative impacts of disasters and emergency situations and develops effective and efficient plans, procedures and systems to minimize such impacts, by relying on sound principles of Disaster Management, community participation and interagency collaboration.
We believe that:
To reduce loss of life and properly within the Commonwealth of The Bahamas by ensuring that adequate preparedness and mitigation measures and response and recovery mechanisms are established to counteract the impact of natural and technological hazards.
Disaster Management is the overall function of this agency. We strive to efficiently and effectively administer the components of the country’s Disaster Management Programme for which we are responsible. These include:
These are administered in accordance with relevant legislation, government policy and public accountability requirements.
We serve the public and private corporations and residents with our expertise in:
Although we are called the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) during its activation, NEMA does not perform the duties of partners who are also involved in disaster management. We do not physically:
Staff of NEMA ensures delivery of the following standards of service, as a minimum, to our clients and stakeholders.
If You Visit Us:
If You Call Us:
If You Write To Us:
Providing Public Information:
Charges for Service:
There are some things you can do that will help us to help you:
We will be responsive to your needs and ideas and welcome your comments in order to help us improve our service. If you have a comment let us know by one or more of the following methods:
If you have a Complaint
There is a procedure to deal with formal complaints:
Checking our performance
We welcome you comments on how successful we are in achieving the standards set out in this Charter. We will:
Help us to improve this Charter
This Charter is being developed through a consultative process with our clients and staff. Your comments on how we might improve this Charter are important to us and we welcome your views on it.
We will use your comments to ensure that the products and services we provide are of the highest standard and that our Charter reflects this accurately. We appreciate your efforts to help us to serve you better.
The National Emergency Management Agency is located Gladstone Road, Nassau, The Bahamas. Our office hours are 9:00 am to 5:00p.m. Monday to Friday, except public holidays.
Postal Address:
The National Emergency Management Agency
Cabinet Office
P.O. Box N-7147
Nassau, N.P.,
The Bahamas
Tel: (242) 322-6081/5
Fax: (242) 326-5456
Email nema@bahamas.gov.bs
Website www.bahamas.gov.bs/nema
In order to help you understand more clearly what is involved in the work of NEMA, the following information is provided on Disaster Management concepts:
A collective term encompassing all aspects of planning for and responding to disasters, including both pre-and post-disaster activities. It may refer to the management of both risks and consequences of disaster.
A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a society, causing widespread human, material, or environmental losses, which exceed the ability of the affected society to cope using only its own resources. Disasters are often classified according to their speed of onset (sudden or slow) or according to their cause (natural or man-made).
CLASS | NATURAL | MAN-INDUCED |
RapidOnset | · Floods · Hurricanes · Landslides · Tornadoes · Tsunamis | · Fires/Explosions · Technological Accidents · Industrial Accidents · Transportation Accidents · Oil Spills |
SlowOnset | · Droughts · Epidemics | · Famines · Civil Strife |
A hazard is a rare or extreme event in the natural or man-made environment that adversely affects human life, property or activity to the extent of causing a disaster.
The vulnerability of a building, a population, or an entire country is measured by how susceptible it is to harm or loss in the face of a hazard.
Risk is expected loss (lives lost, persons injured, damage to property and disruption of economic activity) due to a particular hazard. Risk is the product of hazard and vulnerability.
The notice issued indicating that specific precautions should be taken because of the probability or proximity of a dangerous event.
Any sustained action taken to reduce long-term vulnerability of human life and property to natural or man-made hazards. Mitigation activities would involve for example, sea defence walls to protect the coastline from wave action, building houses away from flood prone areas, adherence to the building regulations to design and construct buildings to withstand hurricanes.
Measures taken to reduce to the minimum level possible, the loss of human lives and other damage, through the organizing of prompt and effective actions of response and rehabilitation.
Effective preparedness enables communities and institutions to provide a quick, organized response to disasters. Disaster Preparedness is designed to minimize loss of life and damage, to organize the temporary removal of people and property from a threatened location, and to facilitate timely and effective rescue, relief and rehabilitation. Public information and ongoing training activities are necessary to create a “culture” of Disaster Preparedness.
Actions carried out in a disaster situation with the objective to save live, alleviate suffering and reduce economic losses.
The restoration of basic services and the beginning of the repair of physical, social and economic damage.
The medium and long term repair of physical, social and economic damage, and the return of affected structures to a condition equal to or better than before the disaster:
e.g. Actions would include construction of permanent housing, full restoration of all services, and complete resumption to the pre-disaster state.
Factors that contribute to the vulnerability of communities and societies to the impacts of hazards are:
War and Civil strife
This involves the assessment of various hazards such as hurricanes, flooding, landslide, etc, which are likely to affect The Bahamas. This information provides the public sector with the ability to develop appropriate hazard mitigation strategies and measures in order to prevent or reduce the occurrence of a disaster in the country. Public sector agencies and individuals within the community are responsible for the implementation of hazard mitigation activities in order to protect life and property.
This area deals with preparing the community for disaster/emergency situations. This is done using community involvement in disaster management, where each individual in the Territory has the opportunity to contribute to plans and decision-making.
This activity seeks to reduce disaster vulnerability, by increasing the public’s awareness, understanding and capability to anticipate and cope with the extreme conditions of hazards and their disastrous effects. This is achieved mainly through training and public education programmes, and the dissemination of information to the public.
Recovery encompasses all those measures necessary to re-establish a stable social, physical and economic basis to a community affected by a disaster. This function requires NEMA to provide support for Government coordination where possible.
NEMA works closely with a wide range of emergency related services to ensure the highest level of coordination in preparedness and response capabilities in the country.