The purpose of the exercise is to improve the Tsunami Warning System effectiveness along the coasts of the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions. The exercise provides an opportunity for the corresponding emergency management organizations to exercise their operational lines of communications, review their tsunami response procedures and promote tsunami preparedness. Regular exercising of response plans is critical to maintain readiness for an emergency. This is particularly true for the Caribbean and Adjacent regions, where tsunamis are infrequent but can be of very high impact.

The Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Tsunami and Other Coastal Hazards Warning System for the Caribbean and Adjacent Regions decided to conduct exercises named CARIBE WAVE on an annual basis. At its thirteenth session (Willemstad, Curacao, 23–27 April 2018), the ICG/CARIBE-EWS, recommended that Exercise CARIBE WAVE 19 take place on 14 March 2019 at 14:00:00 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) with the following two hypothetical scenarios:

1) A 6.0 magnitude earthquake associated with an underwater volcanic eruption and subsequent collapse of an unstable sector of Kick’em Jenny, which generates a tsunami;

2) A tsunami generated by a 8.5 magnitude earthquake located on the Northern Panama Deformed Belt.

The initial dummy message for the scenarios will be issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) on March 14, 2019 at 14:00 UTC and will be disseminated over all its standard broadcast channels.