State level Earthquake Disaster Scenario mock exercise held in Assam
Guwahati,Rongili Barta: A mock exercise (ME) on earthquake disaster scenario for Assam was organised today by Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) in collaboration with National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA). The ME was conducted simultaneously in 30 locations approximately, involving more than 1000 stakeholders from different line departments and responding agencies across ten district headquarters/District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) of Assam viz. Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpeta, Dhubri, Morigaon, Cachar, Darrang, Goalpara, Bongaigaon and Nagaon.
The uniqueness of the mock exercise was that it was conducted both in day time as well as night time for enhancing the preparedness level of the responders to face probable disaster successfully during night time.
The Mock Exercise was aimed to check the preparedness level of the responders and covered market complexes, residential complexes, hospitals, market establishments etc. in each district. In Guwahati it was conducted in Udeshna market complex, Health City Hospital and in Garhchuk wholesale market.
The ME was monitored through video conferencing (VC) involving stakeholders from various line departments, response forces along with different central agencies from these ten districts headquarters of Assam. This kind of Mock Exercise (ME) retreats the global commitment of enhancing preparedness for better response which has been envisaged in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR).
Brigadier Ravinder Gurung (Retd.), Senior Consultant and Exercise Coordinator from NDMA conducted the mock exercise in presence of Shri Alakananda Medhi, ACS, State Project Coordinator, ASDMA and other senior officials from all the stakeholder department and agencies of the state. The full scale mock exercise was executed 10 districts of Assam following a pre-defined earthquake emergency and earthquake induced fire scenario which includes:
- Activation of DDMA Emergency Plan and IRS team.
- Information Dissemination to the SEOC from DEOCs of the 10 DDMAs.
- Deployment of Response Forces.
- Mock Exercise on Earthquake Scenario, earthquake induced fire incident and different search and rescue skills were demonstrated.
- Activation of DEOCs and SEOCs of 10 DDMAs for necessary response to the scenario.
Live demonstration of the entire response mechanism during earthquake disaster emergency was demonstrated during this Mock Exercise by the responding agencies, districts administrations, etc.
A Debriefing session was also conducted following the mock exercise in presence of Brigadier Gurung and State Project Coordinator, ASDMA along with the stakeholders of all 10 districts to identify the gaps in the response mechanism for further enhancement and to bring role clarity among the responders by creating a real time simulation.
Brigadier Gurung appreciated the State Government for adopting Incident Response System as the preferred system of disaster response and Assam being the pioneer state in the entire country in this field. Besides, it also generated awareness among the general public and sensitized them by offering a visual reference to a disaster scenario.
