Social distance may be casualty during cyclone evacuation

Bhubaneswar: As different rescue agencies have taken guard in vulnerable districts to tackle Cyclone Amphan, they face imminent hurdle of breach of social distancing norms during the possible evacuation and rescue operations amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We know it is a catch-22 situation for our personnel. They have to touch and take people, mostly elderly and children, in their arms during evacuation and rescue operations. It will be difficult for them to maintain social distance and enforce the same norms among the evacuees. We have advised our personnel to use body protectors, face shields, masks and gloves while carrying out the evacuation and rescue tasks. Personal protective equipment (PPE) have also been supplied to our personnel,” director general of police Abhay said.
Fire service personnel too apprehend non-compliance of the social distancing norms. “We are alert to the dual worry — Covid-19 and Amphan — and realise the danger of the breach of social distance norms. “Since zero casualty is our government’s motto, our immediate priority will be to evacuate and rescue people from vulnerable locations to safe places,” inspector general of police (fire service and home guards) Asheet Panigrahi said.
The state government is also in a fix as to how to enforce the social distancing norms in cyclone shelters and other places where the evacuees will be accommodated. The government is more worried in Covid hotspots like Ganjam, Bhadrak, Balasore and Jajpur districts to carry out evacuation.
“We normally keep nearly 300 or 400 persons in a cyclone shelter during natural disasters. If we follow the social distancing norms now, we have to give shelter to only 100 persons in each cyclone shelter. Since lakhs of people are likely to be evacuated, we need more shelter units. We have to compromise the social distancing norms while handling the the large number of people,” a senior officer in revenue and disaster management department said.
An official sources said some institutional quarantine centres that have so far not been used in different gram panchayats are likely to be converted into temporary shelter places for the evacuees. The state government appealed to people to wear masks and use hand sanitisers during evacuation and rescue operations. “We have asked district administrations to provide masks to people in villages,” the officer said.