PRE MONSOON TROPICAL CYCLONE ALERT (LAILA)

Transcription

1 PRE MONSOON TROPICAL CYCLONE ALERT (LAILA) (Updated as on 19 th May, 2010, AM) A pre-monsoon Tropical Cyclone alert has been issued for all the coastal districts of Orissa by the Special Relief Commissioner based on the report of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and modeling of the data from other weather forecasting websites. It has been reported by the IMD that the Cyclonic Storm LAILA over Southwest & adjoining Westcentral Bay of Bengal moved Northwestwards and lay centered at 0530 hours IST of today, the 19 th May,2010 over Southwest & adjoining Westcentral Bay of Bengal near latitude North and longitude East at about 700 kms South-Southwest of Gopalpur. The prediction of other weather forecasting websites were seen and modeled in OSDMA. The current environmental conditions and Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models suggest that the system is likely to intensify further and move in a Northwesterly to Northerly direction and cross Andhra Pradesh Coast between Ongole and Visakhapatnam by early hours of 20 th May, (Tropical Cyclone 01B (Laila) Warning #06 Issued at 19 th May 2010/8.00AM by Naval Oceanography Portal) 1

2 An emergency meeting of Officers of OSDMA and SRC was held in the Conference room of OSDMA on under the Chairmanship of Managing Director. Following preparedness initiatives were taken up immediately. 1. Pre-Cyclone Warning Meeting: The incident coincides with the series of meetings being held from to with District Emergency Officers of different Revenue divisions on preparedness for South West Monsoon in the State Emergency Operation Centre. All zonal district emergency officers have been instructed to be alert on functioning of Control Rooms in a 24x7 basis, working of emergency India Metrological Department equipment, functioning of 4-digit toll free telephone numbers, status of satellite phones and VHF systems, status of SRC boats, list of country and private boats, and status of cyclone/flood shelters, etc. They have been sensitized on the incoming cyclone Laila. 2. ODRAF Units were alerted and kept in readiness for emergency deployment. I.G Police (Law & Order), Orissa was requested vide Letter No.1429 dated 18 th May 2010 to keep the ODRAF units in readiness to move with emergency equipment such as mechanized boats, inflatable tower lights, power saws and other essential search, rescue and road clearing equipment immediately in case of any eventuality. Five teams of ODRAF (carved out of the personnel under going training there) have been kept in readiness at Chhatrapur and Jharsuguda unit was deployed at Cuttack (Letter No.1436/ ). 2

3 3. Director General & I.G of Police (Fire Service), Orissa was requested to keep the Fire Service personnel of 50 coastal Fire Stations/ Fire Training Institutes/Fire Service Headquarters on readiness. They have been supplied with inflatable rubber boats with OBM, Inflatable tower light, portable power saws and other auxiliary search & rescue equipment. They are also properly trained for operation & maintenance of these equipment. The fire Service personnel have successfully worked jointly with ODRAF jawans on earlier disasters. They have been instructed to undertake search & rescue operation independently. 4. It is decided to conduct the PREPAREDNESS EXERCISE in all the cyclone shelters on 21 st May 2010 to mobilize the community, Cyclone Shelter Management and Maintenance Committees (CSMMC) and administrative machinery for better preparedness to face the eventuality. Letter issued on to the Collectors of coastal districts on the proposed Preparedness Exercise for disaster management in view of approaching cyclonic storm Laila. The Exercise will be conducted at shelter level involving the community, task force members, CSMMC, Village Disaster Management Committees (VDMCs), PRI representatives, NGOs partners and volunteers trained in search & rescue and first aid techniques. The preparedness exercise will have a series of activities at all levels, starting from District to Block and Village level. The exercise will have focus on operation of equipment supplied to the cyclone shelters, District Emergency Operation Centres (EOC), Sub Divisional offices and the Fire Service stations and display of search & rescue and first aid techniques, besides, stock-taking of relief materials, deployment of different teams in critical locations etc. The District Emergency Officers will be the District Nodal Officer for organising and monitoring the preparedness exercise. NGO partners may be involved at shelter level to facilitate the exercise. District level officers/block Development Officers/Tahasildars may be engaged as Observers for each shelter. 5. Officers from OSDMA and SRC have been deputed to districts to coordinate the activities. Funds have been placed with Collectors for the purpose. Rs1.00 crore has been released in favour of the Health and Family welfare Department to meet if there is any eventuality. 3

4 6. GIS & data modeling at OSDMA: Continuous real time data on cyclone path, wind direction, precipitation, cloud intensity, satellite imageries are being collected from different weather forecast websites. Those data are analyzed in GIS platform to obtain better forecast in a regional scale. The cyclonic paths and impact area provided by different national and international organizations are being compared for better assessment of the projected effect of the event. 7. Information sharing with Media: All information on warning and preparedness initiatives has been shared with the press for wider dissemination. Three day meeting of all District Emergency Officers with the Additional District Magistrates (Revenue Division-wise) has been held since 17 th May 2010 and it shall continue till 19 th may The basic objective of the meeting is to review the level of preparedness to meet if there is any eventuality. It has been decided to conduct preparedness drill in all Multi-purpose cyclone shelters on 21 st May Rs1.00 crore has been released in favour of the Health and Family welfare Department to meet if there is any eventuality. All five units (Balasore, Cuttack, Jharsuguda, Chhatrapur and Koraput) of Orissa Disaster Rapid Action Force, (ODRAF) are kept in high alert with emergency equipment such as mechanized boats, inflatable tower lights, power saws and other essential search, rescue and road clearing equipment. Fifty coastal fire stations have been made alert. They have been equipped with boats, portable power saws, commando search lights, sirens, inflatable tower lights, megaphones, life buoys and life jackets. The state level NGO coordination meeting is being held to plan out participation of NGOs in response activities, if so required. The forecast of India Meteorological Department and other sources are being analysed in the GIS cell of OSDMA and the track of the cyclone is continuously monitored. The District Administrations of the coastal and other Districts which are in the probable zone of cyclone are being updated with relevant information. 4

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