The administration in the central districts of Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Pudukottai and Karaikal enclave of Puducherry have galvanised their machinery comprehensively to deal with consequences arising from Cyclone Gaja, which is expected to make a landfall on Thursday.
All five district administrations have announced holiday for schools and colleges, and have readied flood relief centres to accommodate people who may get displaced by possible flooding caused by the cyclone. Coastal villages are being updated about the conditions prevailing in the sea at periodic intervals.
The district administrations have kept ready enough numbers of sand bags to plug breaches, and have opened several relief and multi-purpose rescue centres. Several hundreds of schools, colleges, community halls, and marriage halls have been converted into rescue centres.
Fair price shops have been stocked with supplies of rice and provisions that will last for weeks.
In each district, teams of Fire and Rescue Service personnel, police personnel trained in disaster management have been kept in alert mode.
Nagapattinam
State Handlooms Minister O.S. Manian and Tenkasi S. Jawahar, District Monitoring Officer and Principal Secretary/ Commissioner of Treasuries and Accounts, chaired separate meetings to determine preparedness of the district administration to meet disaster situations.
Officials informed that 4,454 first responders have been deployed across the district. For the safety of livestock and cattle, 2,020 first responders have been deployed separately.
Thirty-eight locations accounting for 86,964 residents have been identified as vulnerable. There are 627 centres in all for housing displaced people, and 212 centres to move cattle and livestock to safety, in the district. Fourteen medical teams are ready to attend to emergencies.
According to officials, the district administration has kept ready 6,000 electric poles, and nearly 1.2 lakh sand bags, besides a number of saw machines and earth movers.
Mr. Jawahar urged people to remain indoors at the time of cyclone.
He advised people to call the Control Room that would function round-the-clock at the Collectorate to pass on information on emergencies on 1077/04365 251992.
Karaikal
In Karaikal district, Chief Minister of Puducherry V. Narayanasamy chaired the meeting and advised officials to keep ready generator sets and stocks of diesel in the vicinity of water tanks to ensure availability of drinking water even of there was power disruption.
He instructed officials to prevent people from going to close to the shoreline at the time of landfall of the cyclone.
The meeting saw the participation of Collector R. Kesavan and other senior officials of police, revenue, agriculture, animal husbandry and health departments.
Thanjavur
The district administration has formed separate teams for health care, emergency response, safety and rescue, water disposal, and transport.
Collector Annadurai said 135 teams would monitor the situation in 27 villages. The district administration has stationed 1,932 first responders in all blocks.
The district has kept ready 42,000 sand bags, and 134 mechanised saw machines to plug breaches in water bodies and to clear roads of fallen trees.
Fifty trained fishermen have been asked to be ready to respond immediately for rescue operations. The Collector instructed people to avoid giving cattle and livestock a bath in the water bodies.
Tiruvarur
District Monitoring Officer and Secretary of Social Welfare Department Manivasan said the administration had formed several teams for flood relief, health care, and safety of livestock and cattle.
Collector L. Nirmal Raj said a total of 633 officials were in 135 teams monitoring the situation round-the-clock. The PWD had kept ready 1.02 lakh sand bags at 16 locations. A total of 212 low-lying areas had been identified, and precautionary measures taken, he said.
The situation would be monitored closely by 3,180 first responders.
Pudukottai
In Pudukottai district, Collector S. Ganesh visited the coastal villages of Kottaipattinam, Kattumavadi, Pillayarthidal and Meemisal and inspected measures taken for housing people who could be displaced by the cyclone.
The district administration has made arrangements for converting 12 buildings in vulnerable locations as temporary camps. Rescue teams have been stationed in each of the 13 panchayat unions, Mr. Ganesh said.
