Villagers of Odisha wake up to ‘Mega Mock Drill’ for Tsunami preparedness

Bhubaneswar, November 25: Villagers of Odisha woke up to the ‘alerts’ of Odisha State Disaster Management Authority initiated their morning to ‘Mega Mock Drill’ for creating preparedness to disasters like Tsunami. As many as 328 villages in Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur and Puri districts have been identified as Tsunami-prone in the state, said SRC, Bishnupada Sethi. Even villagers in Prasannapur in the cyclone-prone coastal pocket of Kendrapara district rose to the occasion to actively take part in the drill, said Rajnagar tehsildar Khirod Kumar Behera. 

Such mock drills like this one provides an opportunity for disaster management authorities to examine their operational lines of emergency response procedures, communications and promote emergency preparedness, Sethi said. The local people took keen interest in the evacuation drills. This exercise aims to assess and improve the preparedness, response mechanism and co-ordination among various agencies, he added.

Women and children also came forward to take part in the drill in seaside Dhinkia village of Jagatsinghpur district. They asked many questions regarding disaster preparedness to the drill trainers, said revenue inspector, Dhinkia circle, Alekh Behera.

The office of the Special Relief Commissioner in collaboration with Indian National Centre for Ocean Information had organized a Tsunami mock drill involving government agencies and response forces along the coastal areas of six districts in Odisha. The massive drill was coordinated by Ministry of Home Affairs and National Disaster Management Authority.

The State Emergency Operations Centre, District Emergency Operation Centre, Block and Urban Administration, response forces -NDRF, ODRAF, Fire Services and Civil Defence along with defence forces – Indian Navy and Indian Coast-Guard participated in the drill.

"Volunteers herded the villagers to the cyclone-warning shelters. The villagers had a practical experience of what to do and what not to during natural disasters," said Nuagaon gram panchayat sarpanch Bidyadhar Mallik.

"The drill started at 9.30am and lasted up to 1.30pm. The National Disaster Response Force, the OSDMA, the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force and fire service personnel took part in the drill," said Ganjam district emergency officer Pragyan Paramita Chatoi.