Day after cyclone Yaas strikes, ODRAF reaches out to needy villagers marooned by water

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF), an elite rescue unit of Odisha Police, has shifted its focus to villages that have been marooned by the ingression of sea and floodwaters in the aftermath of cyclone Yaas, which swept Balasore and Bhadrak on Wednesday. Additional forces and boats have been provided to them to reach out to the needy.
Rescue teams, which were pre-positioned in some other districts before the cyclone hit the state, have been diverted to the worst-hit Balasore and Bhadrak districts. The ODRAF teams have been given 63 inflatable rubber boats, 152 tower lights, 18 diesel generator sets of 10 kilo volt ampere (KVA), one 5 KVA generator, 35 generators of 3 KVA, 228 search lights, 330 branch cutters, 52 extendable saws, 88 bullet chain saws, 35 hydraulic rescue cutters, 11 plasma cutters, 16 gas cutters, 16 satellite phones, 123 walkie talkie gadgets and 50 global positioning system devices to carry out rescue and restoration operations in the cyclone-ravaged areas.
“Our personnel are not just clearing the uprooted trees from roads and houses of people, but have been providing relief materials, medicines, masks and sanitisers in the villages that have been cut off from rest of the world owing to water-logging and ingression of flood and seawater. A large number of people were rescued in boats,” ODRAF’s chief Yeshwant Jethwa said.
The ODRAF rescuers said they have shifted more than 40 elderly persons, 60 children and 20 bed-ridden patients suffering from different diseases from their water-logged houses to safety on Wednesday night and Thursday. Hundreds of people were evacuated to the safety of cyclone shelters on Tuesday. The personnel earned accolades for rescuing a drowning cow from a flooded river in Soro area of Balasore district on Thursday.
The members of ODRAF, which was raised in 2001, have undergone flood rescue boat operation (FRB) training. Around 77 ODRAF personnel have been trained in underwater lifesaving and salvage operation training at the Sea Explorer Institute in Kolkata. Around 26 personnel have undergone a highly critical training in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) programmes at a national training centre in Pune. About 70 ODRAF personnel have specialised in collapsed structure search and rescue (CSSR) and medical first responder (MFR) at the National Disaster Training Centre in Ghaziabad and Bhatinda. Nearly 354 personnel have undergone special training on high-rise building rescue training.