Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA), Home Department in collaboration with District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs), the responsible departments and civil society organisations simultaneously conducted Nagaland Emergency Preparedness Exercise (NEPEx), a mock drill on disaster preparedness, across the state on Wednesday.
The preparedness exercise, which was carried out taking the earthquake scenario of 8.4 magnitudes Richter scale in Nagaland, was primarily to test the preparedness level and capacity of the state in the event of such disaster. At 11 am, all disaster management forces across Nagaland swung into action to contain damages caused by a 8.4 magnitude earthquake with its epicentre between Kohima and Phek at a stretch of around 80-90 Km from Kohima.
In Kohima district, the mock drill was exercised under the DC Kohima as response officer (RO) and ADC Kohima as incident commissioner (IC). During the mock drill exercise, different committees like planning section, operation section, logistic section, response branch, air operation section, medical unit were set up and to assist the operation volunteers from Kohima Science college NCC group, polytechnic and the DEF rendered their services.
Commissioner & secretary, NSDMA, KhrienuoMetha, said that the two-hour long exercise added some awareness to all the line departments and the public to respond to such calamities.
During the debriefing with various stakeholders after the drill at State Emergency Operation Centre here on Wednesday, the additional chief secretary and home commissioner, Temjen Toy, said that such exercise was required in the near future so what was learned today would be taken into account.
During the discussion, it was noted that more attention should be given to the schools because disaster could happen anytime and students must know how to shelter themselves from the disaster. The meeting also observed that minimum required equipments must be made available in all the Primary Health Centres or the district hospitals to meet any eventuality. It was noted that hospitals like Wokha district hospital was not equipped with oxygen. Further, Toy informed that more siren sound needed to be installed in all the strategic locations and also open more mode of voice communication.
Shortage of trained manpower was also discussed. In Kiphire district, the drill could be conducted only at four locations out of the six owing to shortage of trained manpower.
Toy insisted on increasing man power in all the districts. He also stressed on the need to earmark centrally located staging areas so there was no confusion if real disaster occurred.
For machineries, Toy said mechanical department should be contacted for emergency deployment of machineries while also alternate routes have to be worked out if the highways were blocked. On food, he said food and civil supplies department had to keep proper inventory of food item to dispatch for emergency cases.
DG prison, Rupin Sharma, suggested tying up with kitchen communities for emergency. He asked NSDMA to do more research on food and water while citing instances of floods that occurred in Dimapur, Tuli and Tizit where drinking water ran out. The meeting also discussed about setting up of SDRF teams in Kiphire, Longleng and Peren.
DIMAPUR: In Dimapur district, the mock exercise, which was held at 13 different locations, began with sounding of siren at 11 a.m. for one minute.
Some of the residents were taken by surprise when the emergency services, police, the fire department, district magistrates, civil defence volunteers and NGOs rushed to mock drill staging area that was set up at Indoor Badminton Stadium.
Right after the sounding of siren, an emergency operation centre was activated at the DC’s conference hall Dimapur and DC Dimapur, Kesonyu Yhome, hurriedly convened an emergency briefing of the DDMA members and head of departments and appraised them of the disaster.
Relief camp was set up at DDSC stadium. Task force teams headed by task force officers rushed to the severely affected simulated locations covering Hongkong Market, Vishal Mart, Marwari Patti, Don Bosco Higher Secondary School, Nikos Hospital, residential building at Marwaru Patti and eight government offices.
The search and rescue team created a number of stimulated situations like collapse of building, damage to hospitals, shopping complex, schools, etc.
They also demonstrated on how to evacuate people from different levels of buildings, trapped inside in the event of disaster. It also simulated the injured persons being rushed to the Civil Hospital Dimapur by ambulances for treatment, and the dead persons being shifted to mortuary.
The team also created a scenario where people, who sustained minor injuries, were given treatment on the spot by the medical team.
During the mock drill, the disaster machinery dealt with 13 dead, 18 seriously injured, 26 major injuries, 90 minor injuries and 30 families that were left homeless.
Interestingly, despite the public awareness through the media, some commuters failed to give way to the emergency services. Some were just onlookers to the whole situation and had no idea what was going on.
After completion of the mock drill, debriefing was held at the DCs conference hall. During the debriefing, G.C.Khanal from Sikkim Disaster Management Authority, the chief observer of the mock drill, viewed that more trainings should be imparted to the community as they would be the first responders in the event of disaster.
He also observed that students and office goers should be trained and mock drills ought to be conducted often. He further called for involvement of NGOs during mock drills.