Emergency Preparedness Exercise to improve disaster response and resilience
Our Correspondent Kohima | August 29 The Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA) will be conducting a state-wide Nagaland Emergency Preparedness Exercise (NEPEx) consisting of a “mega mock exercise” on August 30.
In the state capital Kohima, 16 important locations have been identified for this exercise. Starting from 11:00 AM, the exercise will take around 2 to 3 hours.
“This is an exercise that is being carried out in all the districts,” said Additional Chief Secretary & Home Commissioner, Temjen Toy while addressing a press conference here. This exercise is to prepare us on our effectiveness and our resilience while dealing with any kind of disaster, he said.
Stating that Nagaland lies under Seismic Zone V, he said the disaster exercise on August 30 will be largely around earthquake response. The preparedness exercise will be done taking into consideration a scenario with an earthquake of 8.4 magnitude. Only by doing such an exercise we get to know our strength and weakness on disaster preparedness, he added.
Toy informed that after the exercise, reports would be collected from all the districts to see “where we went wrong, where we went right and which are the ways we could have done better.” He expressed confidence that the exercise would help prepare everyone during earthquakes.
Meanwhile, stating that this is just a preparatory exercise, he asked the public not to panic. Earlier, the NSDMA also requested the public not to panic and to cooperate with the authorities for smooth conduct of the mock exercise. “Such drills/exercise have proven to be most useful as they increase awareness as well as equips the citizens to respond appropriately during times of actual disasters,” it informed. It may be noted that the NEPEx is the state wide emergency exercise of the NSDMA.
Nagaland lies under Seismic Zone V and is vulnerable to many natural calamities such as earthquake, landslide, flashflood, thunderstorm, hail storm, forest fire etc.
Nagaland being vulnerable to many natural calamities, it is imperative to establish a scientific approach in responding the disaster. It is crucial for both the government and the public to prepare themselves for any disaster which will reduce risk and reduce extensive damage during emergency, stated NSDMA.
The idea behind NEPEx is to generate awareness among the communities and different agencies on how to establish mechanism for effective response to any disaster.
NEPEx will be organised annually during different seasons of the year to acclimatize and build resilience to different extreme weather throughout the state.
In the state capital, kohima, an alarm and siren will go off at 11:00 AM from PHQ and at the Secretariat Junction. Everyone in the offices will practice, drop, hold and cover. After two minutes there will be another siren (alarm) from both the locations- PHQ & Secretariat Junction. Everyone in the offices and schools shall move out to the safer place. Officers shall then move to the Staging Area with resources and report to the Staging Manager.
All units have been requested to bring in basic resources and set up in the Incident Command Post at the assigned locations.
