The Association of Hotels of Santo Domingo held a course for its members on handling natural disasters. It concentrated on what action the city’s hotels should take in the time of a hurricane. Cristine Herridge de Guerrero, who coordinates the Dominican Committee for Mitigating Disasters, stressed the efforts being taken to create a nucleus of skilled personnel to cope with the consequences of disasters both at the community as well as at business levels. The course also sought to open channels of communication between important government organizations that operate at the time of disasters, such as the Civil Defense, the Fire Brigade and the Dominican Red Cross. The course was given by José Abreu, of J. Abreu y Asociados; Carlos Pimentel, Visión Mundial; and Gregorio Gutiérrez from Codetel.