PURI: With Cyclone Fani assuming an extremely severe form and advancing towards Odisha, the coastal districts along its projected path have gone on high alert, putting in place emergent measures to meet any eventuality.
Disaster mitigation measures have been initiated in Puri to minimise the effect of Fani which, as per the Met department, is likely to make landfall on the coast between Satpara (Chilika lake) and Chandrabhaga in Konark on May 3 evening.
Collector Jyoti Praksh Das said hundreds of families in fishermen colonies at Chandrabhaga and Penthakata in Puri will be shifted to 178 multi-purpose cyclone shelters located in 96 villages, identified as tsunami-prone areas, by May 2 evening. This apart, all the 11 block development officers have been advised to shift residents from low lying areas close to the sea or Chilika lake.
With the met advisory predicting a wind speed of more than 170 km along with heavy rains at the time of landfall, a quick action team has been kept ready to clear roads of debris. The Collector also held discussions with officials and engineers of 11 departments related to disaster management to prepare the machinery for relief and rescue operations.
Moreover, special steps are being taken to protect the election strong rooms in Kendriya Vidyalaya which is in close proximity to the sea. There are 12 strong rooms where EVMs are being stored under tight surveillance of security personnel. To prevent flooding of the school, an embankment will be raised to stop water flow into the campus. This apart, 20 heavy duty pump sets have been kept in the school to drain out floodwater from the campus.
The Civil Supply Officer has been asked to stock adequate food grains, LPG cylinders, biscuits, flattened rice, molasses, drinking water and packaged milk while CESU was directed to provide power generators to cyclone shelters and keep a team in readiness to restore electricity supply as early as possible. An ODRAF team has arrived at Puri while another NDRAF team will reach soon.
As many as 11 units of the Fire Services department with necessary equipment have been kept in readiness and the Chief District Medical Officer directed to provide round-the-clock service to patients. The Chief District Veterinary Officer has also been directed to stock animal feed and water in cyclone shelters.
A round-the-clock emergency control room has started functioning from Tuesday to monitor the development and provide logistic support to operation teams, said Das.Meanwhile, tourists have started leaving Puri after learning about Fani. All the departing trains from Puri were running full while bookings of reservation tickets and hotel rooms for the next fortnight have been cancelled. Similarly in Jagatsinghpur, Collector Guha Poonam Tapas Kumar chaired a meeting to review the cyclone preparedness of various departments.
The Collector directed BDOs, Tehsildars, Executive officers of Paradip and Jagatsinghpur Municipalities and other district officials to shift people living in low-lying areas to cyclone shelters as a precautionary measure. This apart, all Government employees, who are on leave, have been directed to immediately return to the headquarters.
The administration also held discussions with village committees, sarpanchs and executive officers of gram panchayats and asked them to cooperate with officials in implementation of relief measures. All cyclone shelters, including 45 multi-purpose ones, and schools and anganwadi centres have been readied. As many as 938 villages have been identified as cyclone-prone.
Ganjam has also geared up to tackle Fani. Collector Vijay Amrita Kulange asked officials concerned to ensure zero casualty and said families residing in vulnerable areas would be shifted to safer places from May 2. Apart from cyclone shelters, schools and Government buildings would be used to accommodate families residing in low-lying areas.
While the Collector has directed all Government employees to be present at the headquarters, each place sheltering people would be provided with sufficient food material. Five special teams have been formed to shift people to safer places.
Kulange has directed Patrapur BDO to shift families residing on hills to safer places.On the day, Malkangiri Collector Manish Agarwal took stock of the preparatory measures to tackle the extremely severe cyclone. Agarwal cancelled holidays of all Government employees and asked officials to remain alert to deal with exigencies.
The Dhenkanal district administration too has alerted all officials to remain alert. Collector Nikhil Pawan Kalyan said adequate food materials have been stored while Civil Supply Officials inspected all godowns of potatoes, onion and ration materials in different parts of the district. Deputy Director of Agriculture has advised farmers to take care of their crops.
Koraput Collector K Sudarshan Chakraborty also alerted officials to remain prepared to meet the exigencies. He has asked Southco to ensure early restoration of power supply.Gajapati district also geared up for Fani. Collector Anupam Saha said two control rooms would function 24x7. Senior officials have been deployed in all the seven blocks of the district and people are being sensitised about the emerging situation through public address system.The Collector also appealed to the people not to panic and contact the administration for assistance in case of any exigencies.