With the aim to create awareness of safety measures during earthquakes, a mock exercise simulating a 6.5 magnitude quake was organised by the State Disaster Management Authority in collaboration with the district authority and office of the Deputy Commissioner of Ri-Bhoi at Balawan College, Umsning today.
The exercise was aimed at gauging the disaster preparedness of the staff of the medical, fire and emergency services and others who would be the first responders if such an emergency arose. The mock exercise was held keeping in mind the fact that Meghalaya is in an earthquake-prone geographical area and also to create awareness on preparedness, mitigation and response in case of disaster.
The mock drill was exercised under the command of the Incident Commander, Raja Brahma, the Block Development Officer of Umsning, and performed as per the Incident Response System (IRS) guidelines. All the sections were activated and performed their roles and duties.
This mock drill was also successfully carried out with the active participation of various line departments, such as the Public Health Engineering Department, Public Works Department, Health and Family Welfare, Police, Dorbar Shnong of Lum Roman village, college students and others.
After the exercise, a de-briefing meeting was held at Balawan College, Umsning, where Additional Deputy Commissioner of Ri Bhoi, M.B Tongper spoke on the occasion in the presence of others officers from the line departments which include Dr. J.I Rapthap, Asst. Professor, Department of Adult & Continuing Education, NEHU, Shri P.H Shylla, Divisional Commandant of Home Guards, Dr. Graham Bell, Mabaniang from Civil Hospital Nongpoh, Shri S.Bordoloi, Senior Consultant, SDMA in the august presence of Shri J.P Lakiang, Executive Director SDMA, Smt. M.Momin, MCS,EAC, Smt. K.Wanniang DDMA and others.
All participants shared their experiences during the mock exercise and gave their suggestions for making the teams more efficient with better coordination while dealing with disaster in future.
