Barbuda’s Member of Parliament Trevor Walker is pushing for urgent repairs to a non-operational wave-monitoring station, a critical piece of infrastructure that would boost the island’s tsunami preparedness, days after the Caribbean community earned its official Tsunami Ready certification. Speaking at Wednesday’s official designation ceremony, Walker shared new details about the out-of-service facility, which was originally installed near Barbuda’s River region back in 2010. The lawmaker has formally called on relevant government officials to assess the station to determine if restoration is possible, a move that would allow the Antigua and Barbuda Meteorological Service to track real-time wave heights from a remote location.
Addressing Junior Minister Kiz Johnson directly during the ceremony, Walker stressed: “If it’s possible for you to see whether or not we can get that up and going and repaired.” He noted that a functional monitoring station would strengthen the island’s existing emergency preparedness frameworks, giving forecasters and emergency responders more actionable data to warn residents of incoming tsunami risks.
Walker also expressed strong support for Barbuda’s new Tsunami Ready status, highlighting the far-reaching benefits the years-long designation process has already delivered for local communities. He explained that the public outreach and planning work tied to the certification has dramatically improved resident understanding of tsunami hazards and clearly marked safe evacuation routes. Walker recalled that growing up on the island, residents were only told to evacuate to the Highlands area during a tsunami event, but the new planning initiative has identified multiple additional safe zones across Barbuda.
The official Tsunami Ready designation followed months of coordinated work across government and community stakeholders, including the development of detailed evacuation maps, installation of clear emergency signage, widespread public education campaigns, and a full-scale community tsunami response exercise. Christa von Hillebrandt, a representative for the Tsunami Ready program, shared that advanced tsunami modeling conducted as part of the process confirmed Sir McChesney George Secondary School falls outside of mapped hazard zones, making it a secure evacuation site for local residents.
In closing remarks at the ceremony, Walker urged both government authorities and local residents to continue prioritizing tsunami awareness and preparedness moving forward, rather than treating the designation as a final milestone. Notably, Walker’s comments did not include details on when the wave-monitoring station stopped operating, or the specific scope of repairs that would be required to bring it back online.