Mock exercise simulating earthquake with a magnitude of 8.7 on Ritcher scale was conducted at Dimapur on February 15. (DIPR Photo)
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Dimapur, February 15 (MExN): With a view for testing the capability for responding to disasters and also for enabling convergence of different stakeholder departments and functionaries for proper coordination in times of disaster, a mock exercise simulating earthquake with a magnitude of 8.7 on Ritcher scale was conducted at Dimapur on February 15.
The programme was organised by DDMA Dimapur in collaboration with NSDMA, NDRF and SDRF. The Principal, Vice-Principal, faculty members, students and the NCC wing of Dimapur Government College participated in the mock drill.
During the mock exercise, a DIPR report stated that an earthquake-like situation was created at Dimapur Government College, presuming that the building partially collapsed with persons trapped in the top floor and college auditorium on fire due to the earthquake. The strike team headed by Unit Commander NDRF and involving Fire and Emergency services conducted search and rescue operation where seriously injured and others in different medical conditions were shifted to the hospitals by the medical team.
In this rescue mission, the search and rescue team retrieved three dead bodies, four with crucial injuries and eight with minor injuries from different levels of the building. At Pantaloon Shopping Mall, Strike Team Headed by Unit commander SDRF and involving Medical Team and SDRF team conducted the Mock exercise. Evacuation plan was executed and Search and rescue team rushed to the spot at around 11:30 am and retrieves 1 dead, 2 serious injured and 5 with minor injuries from different levels of the building.
DC Dimapur, Rajesh Soundararajan IAS expressed satisfaction over the successful conducts of mock exercise and lauded all the stakeholders for their active participation. The DC also reminded that Nagaland falls under the earthquake prone zone and the exercise was conducted for observing the preparedness level and coordination of concern stakeholders as community first respondents in real time scenario. He encouraged them to remain physically and mentally prepared all the time and to work for improvement through the activities learnt during the mock exercise.
Rooms of improvement underscored
On rooms of improvement, the observers underscored the need for guides, to lead the NDRF team (who might be new to the area) to the incident sites in order to save time and lives. The need and importance of human life detector to trace the trapped persons was also pointed out.
To keep the members in the District Emergency operation center (DEOC) updated on the status in the incident sites and staging areas during disaster, an Information Board would be useful, noted another observer. All in all, the observers were satisfied with the performance of all the stakeholders involved during the mock exercise, it stated.
