BHUBANESWAR: BHUBANESWAR: With the cyclone ‘Yaas’ all set to intensify into a very severe cyclonic storm in next 48 hours, the State government has launched a massive evacuation exercise in the low lying and vulnerable pockets of north coastal districts.Official sources said evacuation has already started in Balasore district, which will be in the eye of the storm, and low lying areas of Kendrapara district where the storm surge is expected to inundate large areas. The evacuation process will be completed by Tuesday afternoon.
Taking stock of the precautionary measures on Monday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urged the people to cooperate with the administration for shifting to safer places.During discussion with Union Home Minister Amit Shah regarding preparedness for the cyclone, the Chief Minister informed that the State is fully prepared. “We are fully prepared and our officers are in touch with officials of the Centre. We will get back on requirements,” he said.
Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) PK Jena said by Monday night, 10,000 to 15,000 people had been evacuated. The evacuation is continuing and will be over by Tuesday afternoon. Over 6,500 pregnant and expecting mothers with estimated date of delivery before June 1 have already been shifted to hospitals in six districts. Arrangements have been made to provide dry and cooked food to the people at the cyclone shelters, the SRC said, adding that steps have been taken to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity and drinking water.
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Besides, uninterrupted power supply and drinking water will be ensured in all Covid and general hospitals.Preparations have started on a war footing for a massive rescue and restoration operation. The SRC said 22 NDRF, more than 50 ODRAF and 175 Fire Service teams have been deployed in the vulnerable pockets of Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur and Mayurbhanj districts. This apart, 30 NDRF teams, 10 additional ODRAF and 25 Fire Service teams would be deployed in coastal districts. Besides, 35 teams of tree cutters from the Odisha Forest Development Corporation (OFDC) have been deputed to tackle the situation, he said.
Works, Rural Development and Water Resources departments have also formed teams to assist the district administrations in the post-cyclone repair, reconstruction and restoration of roads, power lines, telecom and drinking water supply. Meanwhile, the government entrusted five senior IAS and as many IPS officers to supervise relief, rehabilitation and restoration works in the affected areas. IAS officers given charge of the five districts are Hemant Sharma for Kendrapara, Saswat Mishra for Jagatsinghpur, Vir Vikram Yadav for Bhadrak, Vishal Dev for Balasore and Suresh Kumar Vashishth for Mayurbhanj. IPS officers entrusted with different districts are JN Pankaj (Kendrapara), Amitabh Thakur (Jagatsinghpur), Amitrendranath Sinha (Bhadrak), Diptesh Kumar Pattanayak (Balasore) and Anirudh Kumar Singh (Mayurbhanj).
The government has cancelled leave and holidays of employees till May 31 to facilitate the management of human resources, materials and logistics in the affected areas and asked those on leave to join duty. Besides, Covid-19 testing, vaccination and door-to-door health survey have been suspended in Balasore, Bhadrak and Mayurbhanj districts from May 25 to 27.
