Chennai, four districts conduct tsunami drill

The Besant Nagar Urur Kuppam in Chennai was among the 35 coastal districts of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and the Union Territory of Puducherry, where the drills were held to assess and improve the early warning and response mechanism to mitigate the impact of a high-intensity tsunami, a Home Ministry statement said.

Personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) in Chennai along with police personnel, were seen rescuing ‘victims’ from the beach, performing emergency medical aid activities, while a man on a public address system urged the residents to move to safer shelters.

The exercise was equally brisk in the districts. It was conducted in two villages each in Nagapattinam, Pudukkottai, Thanjavur and Tiruvarur districts on Friday.

In the exercise jointly coordinated by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, officials of various departments, including the Police, Naval and Air Force personnel from Arakkonam and Comibatore mobilised along the coast.

A ‘mock’ message of Tsunami was communicated from the District Head Quarter control rooms at Thanjavur and Tiruvarur to all department officials, who rushed to the coastal hamlets.

In Thanjavur the personnel mobilised vehicles, including the school vans as ambulances, to move the people living near the shore at Kollukkadu and Sethubavachathiram coasts, to safer places including hurricane shelters built at a distance from the shore. Those who could not move were transported in ambulances.

At the district headquarters, A Annadurai coordinated the work from the control room.

At Sethubavachathiram and Kollukadu N Sakthivel, the District Revenue officer coordinated the work, along with the team of Fire Services’ medical team. The Coastal Security Group, Pattukkottai also organised a joint free medical camp for fishermen at Mallipattinam Higher secondary school in the afternoon.

A similar drill was also conducted at Munankadu of Karpaganatharkulam village panchayat, Pudukkudi in Thondiakadu panchayat of Tiruthuraipoondi Taluk in Tiruvarur district.

In Nagapattinam, the drills were conducted at the Vizhundhamavadi fishing hamlet of Kizhverlur taluk, as well as Poompuhar of Sirkazhi. The drill was conducted with the National Disaster Management Agency, State

Disaster Management Agency and with the departments like Revenue, Health and Family Welfare and Fisheries.

In Vizhundhamavadi, S Sureshkumar, Collector, Nagapattinam and Sekar Deshmukh, Superintendent of Police, S Karunakaran, DRO, Nagapattinam have taken part in the event. Priyanka Pangajam, RDO, Mayiladuthurai, supervised the drill activity in Poompuhar.