Keeping in view the State Government’s target of ‘zero casualty’ in cyclone Hudhud, the Ganjam district administration on Saturday began evacuating people from vulnerable areas to safer places and multipurpose cyclone centres.
Ganjam district Collector Prem Chandra Choudhury said, “We are assessing the situation. We have set a target to evacuate about 1.5 lakh people, if required.”
Choudhury said they have evacuated people from four villages of Gopalpur area, Ganjam block and Brahmapur Municipal Corporation (BMC) area.
“We will keep them in designated cyclone shelters of the district,” he added.
The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), fire brigades and the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) were engaged to evacuate people in the district.
According to NDRF commander GK Pathak, three teams were deployed at Brahmapur, Chhatrapur and Aska area. They are ready to face any eventuality during cyclone, he added.
Official sources said three fire brigades were pressed into service in the district and three more teams of Sambalpur would reach the district very soon.
Meanwhile, many parts of the district had already started receiving rainfall due to the impact of the cyclonic storm though it was mostly sporadic and intermittent.