Having learnt lessons from the disaster that wreaked havoc in the State last year, the State authorities are now compiling experiences at the departmental and district level in detail. Disaster Mitigation and Management Centre (DMMC) executive director Piyoosh Rautela has also written a paper titled ‘lessons learnt from the deluge of Kedarnath, Uttarakhand’ which has also been published in Asian Journal of Environment and Disaster Management.
The lessons learnt by various departments and agencies concerned following the June 2013 disaster are being compiled and studied so that the response, relief and rehabilitation works can be streamlined and made more effective in case of disaster scenario in the future.
Rautela has divided the lessons learnt into four categories — information management, warning, relief and rescue and governance. He points out that communications having been disrupted soon after the disaster, there was no information coming to Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) from the disaster affected area. Besides, delaying the response also added to the confusion as different versions were being aired due to the lack of authentic information. There thus has to be a mechanism for ensuring inflow of updated information from the disaster affected area.
EOC should have a single telephone number with multiple lines and with capability of being upscaled during major disaster incidences. Dedicated four-digit toll-free number of the EOC (1070) can be used for this purpose. Special care needs to be taken for briefing of media at regular intervals by duly authorised person having access to authentic and latest information and the persons involved in operations should not be overburdened with the responsibility of interacting with media.
The paper by Rautela states that claimed advance warning regarding the incident communicated to the Government was nothing better than a general forecast predicting heavy rainfall across the State. Efforts for evacuation of the persons likely to be affected could therefore not be initiated in advance.
Reliable warning and its effective communication to the population at risk is the key to saving human lives and mitigating losses. With the present state of scientific knowledge and technological advancement it is possible to generate and disseminate warnings of meteorological events well in advance. Sufficiently dense network of meteorological observatories with real time data transmission facilities is however a perquisite for this, particularly in the Himalayan terrain where weather parameters are highly variable over short distances.
According to Rautela, the highly specialised and well-equipped response forces called in for search and rescue after any disaster are often not familiar with the local terrain and weather conditions. They also lack practical knowledge of the alternative routes, locally available resource, challenges and hardships that are likely to be faced while undertaking rescue. The local people therefore enjoy distinct strategic advantage and in almost all disaster events local people and other survivors are the first responders. It is, therefore, recommended that local masses be trained in search and rescue and be adequately equipped so that they are better prepared to face the disaster and help their community.
Disaster management being a multi-departmental affair, coordination and unity of command are critical to the success of post-disaster response. SOPs and protocols pertaining to the same have to be therefore to be laid down, circulated and rehearsed well in advance to rule out possibility of lapses after disaster has struck. In accordance with the laid down SOPs senior person commanding authority should take charge of the affairs soon after the disaster warning or impact. Assessing the number of persons involved in the June disaster was a major challenge and there were varying claims from various quarters that added to the confusion.
So pilgrimage in areas where people have to trek, should be regulated and only specified number of persons should be allowed beyond a certain point after duly registering their details.
Now the DMMC is compiling the detailed experiences of departmental officials, individuals and those involved in the rescue and relief measures at the district level during the June disaster, added Rautela.