GOVT. IS WELL PREPARED FOR THE CYCLONIC STORM ‘AMPHAN’ TO HIT ODISHA
Rajesh Mohapatra,Odishabarta
BHUBANESWAR:The cyclonic storm ‘Amphan’ is going to hit Odisha most likely on May 19 & 20, as forecasted by Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). Hence, taking the depth of the situation which may happen if it hits Odisha coast, Govt. is all prepared to face it, said. Special Relief Commissioner,Pradeep Kumar Jena(IAS) in a press meet organized this evening in Bhubaneswar. Odisha had a bad experience of Funny which had done massive havoc last year despite Govt.’s heavy preparation. For sure this preparation helped to save casualties, the key challenge was in front of the govt. The Special relief Commissioner briefed all steps taken for facing the disaster, ‘Amphan’ which may hit on May 19 &20. He said Govt. has already warned all collectors in 12 districts identified in coastal belt mostly prone to this Amphan. The important districts are Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak,Balasore, Mayurbhanj.The expected wind speed would be 60 km to 90km/hour.
This Amphan will hit Bay-of-Bengal by the evening today. When it will reach Odisha Coast it might be Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm and may pass parallelly .A special meeting was also conducted by hon’ble CM with the special team consisting of senior officers to deal with this cyclonic storm. All together 809 rest shades are available in these districts and another 7092 buildings have been identified to use as rest shade if required. In this cyclonic storm, three things are mainly considered and they are to safeguard the fisherman to enter the sea, second, to mitigate the infrastructures damage happened because of this cyclonic storm and finally to restore water, electricity and communication. For all these issues govt. has taken enough steps. NDRF and ODRF teams are ready to attend the eventuality if it happened. These teams are ready with their infrastructure and directed to reach their respective places without delay. Special infrastructure is kept ready to clear roads if blocked because of trees fallen on roads, like Poclain and cutting machines. Meeting of all SPs and Collectors have been conducted and information about the guidelines been communicated. If mobile towers are affected because of heavy wind, then all telecom operators will take care to set right the damage in war footing, assured by all senior officers of the telecom operators for which a meeting was conducted by the Special Relief Commissioner including Idea-Vodafone, Airtel, BSNL and Reliance-Jio. If electricity is affected because of heavy wind, DG sets are kept ready to use to supply drinking water to the needy ones. Continuous info is passing on to the natives of these districts in different mode of communication to alert them about this ‘Amphan’ and how to face with all discipline. Special precautions are also made for commuters to remain alert while moving at the time of cyclonic effect. It is more likely that this ‘Amphan’ will have lesser effect if it doesn’t enter the sea level in our coastal area. But these are presumptions but we are preparing ourselves as if ‘Amphan’ will affect Odisha with all its intensity, Said, Special Relief Commissioner.
