Issuing an alert to all the District Collectors of Coastal District the Special Relief Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary to Government (Disaster Management), Pradeep Kumar Jena on Thursday asked them to stay prepared for a possible cyclone over the Bay of Bengal.

Jena had issued several instructions to the collector of 18 districts of Odisha namely, Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Khordha, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Balasore, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, and Kandhamal. In the issued advisory, Jena stated “Keeping in view a possible cyclone over the Bay of Bengal (as per the latest IMD guidelines), all preparedness measures are required to be undertaken well in advance to reduce the impacts of the cyclone.”

He has requested them (collectors) to take up several measures, on priority and mentioned, “District Emergency Operation Centre and Control Rooms of other offices must operate round the clock with adequate manpower, all communication equipment like phone, fax, etc should be in working condition. You may check the provided satellite phones and make test calls.”

The satellite phone, digital mobile radio communication systems have already been established in six coastal districts under the Early Warning Dissemination System (EWDS) project. Jena urged the collectors to ensure their use, if required.

In the advisory, he asked the collectors to identify all vulnerable people and shift them to safe shelters. He suggested them to prepare a detailed evacuation plan for people living in kutcha houses or living near the coast or in low lying areas and other vulnerable persons including old, PwDs, women and children to designated geo-tagged shelter buildings.

He said, “all permanent and temporary safe shelter buildings may be identified and designated shelter buildings should be geo-tagged.”

“A team comprising three local officials (two male and one woman (such as ASHA/AWW/lady teacher/lady Constable/Home guard etc) may be kept in charge of each shelter,” it further stated.

As per the advisory, the aforesaid exercise is targetted to be completed by May 6; and the information on identified safe shelter building indicating latitude and longitude, name of the officials kept in charge and the mobile numbers of such teams/ officials must be furnished to Jeni.

He said that the Safe pucca school buildings/ public buildings in the vulnerable areas can also be identified as temporary shelters as per the requirement.

He asserted that all cyclone and flood shelters should be immediately checked by local Block Development Officer (BDO)/ Tehsildar and said that they should keep a check over water supply, functional toilets, generator, inflatable tower light, mechanical cutters and other equipment available in shelters.

The advisory also said that as the power supply is usually cut off during the peak period of the cyclone, all offices should make their backup power arrangement for that period. Generators available in the different offices including health institutions should be immediately checked for adequately stored fuel.