Coastal fishermen village Konapapapeta in Thondani mandal of East Godavari district was buzzing with activity on Friday with officials of about 30 government departments conducting a mock drill to create awareness among the local people on tsunami preparedness.
The campaign was being held simultaneously in the coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and the mock drill consists of issuing tsunami alerts and personnel from different departments rushing to the rescue of the fishermen onshore and offshore.
While the officials of the fisheries department ensured that the fishing boats did not venture into the sea, personnel from the police and fire services departments, in association with the National Disaster Response Force swung into action to rescue those who were in the sea. A few trained volunteers played the roles of fishermen and citizens at risk and the rescue forces brought them to the shore from the sea and administered first aid to them.
Subsequently, the medical teams attended to the patients. Villagers and onlookers too were involved in the rescue operations.
“The mock drill is aimed at making people aware of tsunami and to make the departments concerned know about their responsibilities,” Kakinada Revenue Divisional Officer L. Raghu Babu explained.
Red flag hoisted
At Mukkam, a coastal village in Bhogapuram mandal of Vizianagaram district, after the second warning signal issued by the weather office about possible tsunami in the afternoon, officials from revenue, disaster management, fire services, police, rural water supply, medical and health, Red Cross, fisheries and teams from APSDRF and NDRF hoisted red flag near the coastline warning fishermen not to venture into the sea. Men from 108 services, fire services and police sounded alert as police and revenue officials moved people to safer places and provided them food and water.
Evacuation
In Prakasam district, a tsunami mock drill was conducted in the coastal Alagayapalem village, near Karedu.
The exercise saw evacuation of all the inhabitants, including old people, children and pregnant women living up to 100 metres from the coast, to the cyclone relief centre. The evacuation operation began at 9.30 am following an and concluded at 1.30 p.m., said NDRF team leader T. Nelson and Kandukur Revenue Divisional Officer Mallikarjun Rao.
