The Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) is due to receive an updated fleet of vehicles this year, as well as a new CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) station in Speyside.

THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine made these announcements on Monday as he recognised TEMA's work over the years as it marked its silver anniversary.

The agency hosted an appreciation ceremony at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, bestowing eight long-service and 12 staff-appreciation awards on 20 of its staff.

Augustine recalled that after it was set up in March 1998, his first encounter with TEMA was in 2004, when the village of Speyside was cut off by the passing of Hurricane Ivan.

'I saw how TEMA operated, I saw how TEMA put together a team of community volunteers - my parents they threw in - and they started a CERT operation in the community - all volunteers.'

He said 25 years was an important milestone worthy of public commendation, and going forward, more must be done for the agency.

This will include the CERT station in Speyside.

"Besides opening for the end of this fiscal year, I believe we are on target for doing so. I was there for the sod-turning as just the area representative; I am elated to be there for the opening as the chief secretary of Tobago.'

After a discussion last year, there is an urgent need to update TEMA's fleet of vehicles this year, he said, and hopefully before the hurricane season, "We would have the updated fleets on the ground so that you would be able to manage effectively.

'Thirdly, we're currently working with the Division of Community Development to relocate all of the NGOs that are currently housed at Fairfield Complex." The intention, he said, was to "completely spruce up Fairfield Complex and make (it) an adequate facility, an adequate home for disaster management response.'

He said continuous training is always key and will continue, 'so that the staff would always be on top of their game," and the agency will also continue to partner with stakeholders.

Chief administrator Ethlyn John said she is comforted by the service offered by TEMA on a daily basis, since for many of its employees, this was not just a job.

'It is indeed a calling. You execute so much passion and pride, from the head of this agency to the many other arms of your operations. The enthusiasm and dedication to service can be easily felt.

"TEMA has indeed become part of the model organisation for disaster preparedness and mitigation, not only in TT but regionally and extra-regionally.'

TEMA's director Allan Stewart said resiliency is the essence of what the agency is trying to achieve.

'We are a very young, budding institution. When you look at government institutions across the region and across the nationalities' spread, we are very young. We're an institution that has a global reach, a global influence, and we embrace those mandates.'