SILCHAR: A mock drill was held in Silchar on Thursday to test the ability to carry out rescue and relief operations in natural calamities like earthquakes. The mock drill was initiated by the disaster management authority of the district administration, the speed of rescue and relief operations was verified by artificially creating an earthquake scenario in five buildings of Silchar.
The mock drill began with a siren which was played through FLS system of Regional Office of Information & Public Relations Barak valley Zone Silchar Assam at 9 am. The news came to the Disaster Management Authority's Emergency Operations Center. The Incident Response System (IRS) was activated immediately to deal with the disaster. An Incident Command Post has been set up in the Settlement Office in Silchar.
In this system, the rescue and relief operations are started under the leadership of the Responsible Officer (i.e. DC). An incident commander (i.e. CEO, DDMA) took the responsibility to deal with the entire disaster. Section heads of operations section, logistics section, planning section etc. sat in a meeting to prepare an incident action plan in the ICP.
The plan was finalized with all section chiefs. Satellite phones and VHF wireless sets were used after the telephone lines were destroyed in the disaster. The Incident Commander directed all emergency departments including fire department, health department, traffic, APRO, APDCL's etc. to speed up their respective departmental disaster response operations. Rescue and relief efforts at the affected areas began. Various forces like NDRF, SDRF, Assam Rifles, Police, Aapda Mitra Volunteers, NYK Volunteers, NGO Volunteers etc. were involved in the rescue measures. Prior to this, the staging area was set up on the police parade ground and all the resources used in the rescue and rescue phase were submitted. A total of 16 people were killed and 52 injured in this earthquake of 8.7 richter scale. Injured persons were admitted in Red Cross Hospital Hospital ,Jiban Jyoti Hospital and Silchar Medical College & Hospital Silchar, stated a press release.
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