Earthquake Disaster Mock Drill conducted across Nagaland state

Morung Express News
Wokha | October 25

The Nagaland State Disaster Management Authority (NSDMA) conducted its annual Nagaland Emergency Preparedness Exercise (NEPEx) 2024 across Nagaland on October 24. 

Wokha District conducted a comprehensive mock exercise simulating an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.7 at five key locations: Libemo Memorial School, PHED Office, Police Point (Residential/Market Area), Mhondamo Memorial Nursing Home (MMNH), and APMCon October 24.

The drill included various disaster scenarios such as building collapses, fires, structural damage, and road cut-offs. At the Police Point, responders dealt with a simulated building collapse and a fire outbreak in the marketplace. Libemo Memorial School faced a scenario with students trapped under debris following a building collapse.

At the APMC location, a simulated landslide resulted in significant structural damage and a complete road blockage, with several individuals sustaining injuries. The exercise at MMNH involved a building collapse scenario where patients were trapped beneath rubble. Meanwhile, the PHED Office drill simulated a partial building collapse, trapping several staff members inside.

Throughout the mock exercise, rescue operations for students trapped under debris and the evacuation of the injured were prominently displayed.

Following the drill, Vineet Kumar (IAS), Deputy Commissioner and Chairman of the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), commended all team members and volunteers for their active participation and the successful execution of the exercise.

During the debriefing session, observers provided feedback, identifying areas for improvement in operational procedures. Superintendent of Police, Aotula T Imchen, also praised the efforts of all participants for their commendable service, contributing to the overall success of the exercise.

The event saw participation from personnel of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), volunteers from Bharat Scouts and Guides, the Police, and members of WDDMA.

Kohima: In Kohima, the mock drill, aimed at assessing the preparedness and coordination of emergency teams, was carried out at five key locations, including Government Middle School (Bayavü), Directorate of Industries & Commerce office, Naga Hospital Authority Kohima (NHAK), Miachieo Lhithochü, and Sanuorü Bridge.

A central control room was set up at the Deputy Commissioner’s Office, with the High School Ground designated as the staging area for emergency responders. Additionally, a relief camp was established at Indira Gandhi Stadium to provide shelter and aid to simulated victims.

The drill involved critical teams from various departments, including the administration, police, firefighters, medical personnel, and other stakeholders. They responded to multiple simulated emergencies, such as casualties from collapsed buildings, fires, and urgent medical cases. The goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of the emergency response in real-time situations.

Despite the successful execution, some challenges were noted, such as transportation delays, communication issues due to a lack of walkie-talkies, insufficient equipment, inaudible sirens, and the need for better identification through batch usage.

Dimapur: The District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), Dimapur, in collaboration with the NSDMA under the Home Department, conducted a state-wide earthquake disaster mock drill across seven key locations in Dimapur on October 24. 

The drill, which began with a briefing by Zakabo V Rotokha, Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) and Incident Commander of DDMA Dimapur at the DC’s Conference Hall, was aimed at testing the district’s preparedness for earthquake-related disasters. 

The mock drill simulated various disaster scenarios at Dimapur Government College, Pantaloons Shopping Mall, GHSS Lingrijan School, Forest Residential Area, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Limited Dimapur Depot, Primary Health Centre (PHC) Duncan, and the DC Office Dimapur.

At Dimapur Government College, a fire broke out at the auditorium, and the administrative block suffered a partial collapse. A total of three dead bodies were retrieved, while four were seriously injured and eight sustained minor injuries. Nine individuals trapped on the top floor of the administrative block were also rescued.

Pantaloons Shopping Mall saw structural damage and a fire incident, resulting in the retrieval of one dead, two seriously injured, and five with minor injuries. Heavy traffic congestion further complicated the evacuation efforts.

At GHSS Lingrijan School, rescuers retrieved two dead, three seriously injured, and one with minor injuries from the collapsed building. Five persons were trapped in the debris but were safely rescued.

In the Forest Residential Area, a fire and structural damage led to four serious injuries and eight minor injuries. Rescuers evacuated several residents amid chaotic scenes.

At the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Limited Dimapur Depot, five people were seriously injured, two sustained major injuries, and eight had minor injuries. A fire broke out, and the facility’s staff were evacuated.

The Primary Health Centre (PHC) Duncan experienced structural damage, resulting in three people sustaining minor injuries.

At the DC Office Dimapur, two people were initially reported missing but were later found. The rescue team retrieved three individuals with serious injuries and one with minor injuries from the collapsed structure.

Mokokchung: Mokokchung District Disaster Management Authority conducted the mock drill where the disaster scenario of Landslide, fire incident and collapse structure was simulated at five different location in the Town; Longkumer Kilem, Lenjem Hospital, Straightway Hr Sec School, DC Office building and Landslide on the way to DC Office.

The designated staging area was put up at  Imkongmeren Sports Complex where Emergency Medical Camp was set up to provide Medical aid to the injured victims transported from the site of the incidents, deployment of machineries and personnel in response to incident report by setting up of Incidence Response Teams (IRT) at the staging Area.

After all the mock drill exercise is completed at Staging Area, the Incident Commander demobilized the IRT followed by remarks from the Chief Observer where he shared some observations of the Exercise. Deputy Commissioner of Mokokchung, Thsuvisie Phoji in his concluding remarks mentioned that the Mock Drill was successfully conducted due to active participation of all the designated Officials, personnel, Departments and voluntaries from various NGOs and Schools. He also added the overall response was good but we need to be more practical while carrying out the assigned responsibilities.

Noklak: Noklak District Disaster Management Authority in collaboration with the NSDMA organised the mock drill at Noklak town. During the Mock exercise, following sites were selected for mock drill: KGBV Hostel, Bazaar Noklak Town, District Hospital, Kiamngan (Kiamong Landslide) and Government High School, Noklak Village. SDO (Civil) Noklak, Vikhoto Richa in his briefing at staging area thanked all the stakeholders and volunteers for the successful conduct of the Mock exercise.

Peren: A mega mock drill exercise was conducted in Peren Town. The mock drill was supervised by DDMA Peren simulating an earthquake with a   magnitude 6.9 on the Ritcher scale triggering massive landslide, fire and building. The exercise was carried out to test the capabilities of the district in responds to any disaster in the district.

The staging area was set up at Peren Town local ground while ADC office Peren, Peren Government Higher Secondary School, District Hospital, marketing sheds and landslide below Police Reserve were marked as the incident site.

A scenario of four dead and 26 injured were reported from various incidents out of 26 two were seriously injured and were given medical attention by the medical unit.

Tseminyu: A mock drill was conducted at Tseminyu on October 24. The drill simulating an Earthquake with a magnitude of 6.9 and massive landslide in Tseminyu Town triggered by the earthquake damaging a huge number of houses and effecting hundreds of families was conducted.

Kiphire: The mock drill began at Kiphire with sounding of the with sounding of the siren from Public ground, DC Office, Agriculture Office and Daily Market at 9:03 AM.

Responsible Officer (RO) briefed the Incident Response Team (IRT) members, after which the Incident Commander and stake holders rushed to the staging Area along with the other IRTs stationed at DEOC with available resources at the four selected locations and one incident site.

The simulating scenario in the incidents included collapse structure search and rescue and road clearance. Rescue personnel and volunteers during the Exercise were Fire brigade team, Police department, Traffic and Wireless.

In the briefing session, ADC Kiphire, Longdiba L Sangtam NCS, exhorted the participants that preparations in time of disaster can save many lives and learn the short coming through the mock drill.

Longleng: DDMA Longleng in collaboration with NSDMA and National Disaster Management Authority, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India on 24th October 2024 conducted multi-state level mock exercise on earthquake disaster. 

The following locations for Mock Drill-NEPEx were selected: DEOC-Rostrum, Hukpang, PWD office, Bautung Higher Secondary School and Local Ground.The mock drill was conducted as part of routine exercise for preparedness and awareness when actual disaster strikes.

The mock drill exercise was conducted by active participation of government departments and agencies playing their respective roles and responsibilities as assigned to them in the Incident Response System (IRS), guidelines and structure issued by the NSDMA.

The rescue team was led by DEF, Fire & Emergency Services, Aapda Mitra volunteers and Medical Team while the incident commanders, operation section, planning section and logistic section communicated each other to take stock of the situation.

After the mock drill exercise, review meeting comprised of incidents commanders was held at public playground Longleng under the chairmanship of responsible officer, Deputy Commissioner Longleng W. Manpai Phom NCS. The commandant 12th NAP (IR) battalion, Chingtok and Vice principal Yingli College were the observers of the mock drill exercise.

Tuensang: Mock Drills exercise was conducted at Parade Ground Tuensang. The Nagaland Emergency Preparedness Exercise incident site were at DC’s office Old building, GHSS and Daily market Officer Colony. The staging area was the Parade Ground Tuensang, with make shift hospital, Morgue and Relief Camp with active participant from District Administration Tuensang, SDRF, Fire and Emergency Services, DEF Tuensang, CMO Tuensang, DPRO Tuensang and NCC of GHSS Tuensang.

During the debriefing session, Deputy Commissioner Tuensang, Lithrongla Tongpi Rutsa advised the team to cooperative and coordination between the stakeholders for timely evacuation and rescue of the casualties at the time of disaster. Commandant VG and Observer, Yanchu Chang also stated that comparing to last year, this year Mock Drills have improvement in communication and Timely executing of plan at the time of disaster.

Phek: In Phek district, NEPEx mock drill was conducted four Incident sites, at GHSS, DC office, District Hospital and KK Shopping Mall, Phek. The mock drill exercise was conducted under the District Level Incident Response System (IRS) Structure, such as Incident Commander led by DC Phek, Operational Section led by District Commandant HG & CD & SDRF, Planning Section led by DPO, Logistic Section led by Additional SP. 30 personnel from SDRF Phek actively performed at the Mock trial exercised. 15 AapdaMitra Volunteers from Phek Town were used during mock trial, where five vehicles for rescue and strike team were utilized. Search and Rescue team rushed to the spot and rescued two students trapped inside the debris, and also Retrieved three dead, two seriously injured and four with minor injuries from different levels of the building.

Chümoukedima: A mock drill was conducted in Chümoukedima district. The exercise involved four key locations: North Town Higher Secondary School, D.C. Office Complex, Norman Putsure College, and Vishal Market Complex. Rescue teams responded to the simulated incidents, rescuing 14 people with both minor and critical injuries. Unfortunately, 6 fatalities were recorded as part of the mock scenario. The drill aimed to test the district’s preparedness and response capabilities in the event of a major earthquake, with the teams working efficiently to manage the disaster simulation.

Niuland: Niuland district organised a mega mock exercise on October 24. The drill was done assuming the scenario of an earthquake of 6.9 magnitude striking Niuland Town at 9:00 AM resulting in massive building collapses damaging 500 houses, road blockade and damage of live wires. About 1000 people has been affected by building collapse, main electric transmission line from Dimapur to Niuland has been damaged and the whole district was black out, drinking water supply and pipeline has also been damaged. While 3 people were killed and 15 were injured and 40 people missing expected to be trapped under debris.

Three incident site affected seriously have been reported in St Joseph School, CHC Niuland and DC residence. Immediately after the earthquake siren was alerted, incident response team reported to DEOC after which Deputy Commissioner & RO activated the IRS. Immediate response to the situation was done by activation of onsite/ off-site Emergency Response plan, evacuation plan, restoration of electricity, water supply and communication system, setting up of relief camps at public ground, setting up of temporary hospital medical aid, media, SDRF, NDRF, Planning section, logistic section were set up at public ground.

The drill concluded with the debriefing from DC Niuland Sara S Jamir.  DC stated that the purpose of the exercise was to generate awareness among the communities and different agencies on how to establish mechanism for effective response to any disaster particularly earthquake with Nagaland state being in seismic zone V.

Mon: DDMA Mon, in collaboration with NSDMA & National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) organised the NEPEx. Deputy Commissioner Mon, Ajit Kumar Verma, IAS, was the responsible Officer and ADC Hq Mon, Pakon Phom was the Incident Commander.

The scenario began with the siren alert that the earthquake of magnitude 6.9 on Richter Scale struck Mon town. Four vulnerable sites identified were Government Higher Secondary School, Mon Town ‘D’, PWD (R&B) Office Building, NST Junction, Shantham Ward and District Hospital. Staging Area was located at Local Ground. Incident Command Post, Operation Section, Planning Section and Logistic Section were located at Local Ground. Relief Camp was located at Badminton Stadium.

On receiving the report, the SDRF team rushed to vulnerable sites and retrieved two dead bodies, three Seriously Injured &three with minor injuries at PWD (R&B) office building severely damaged and caught fire. Three dead bodies retrieved, four seriously injured and three minor injuries at Government Higher Secondary School, Mon Town ‘C’ building. Two students trapped inside the debris and building were totally damaged and the rest of the building were partially damaged. Retrieved 2 dead, 3 seriously injured and 3 minor injuries at NST Junction Shantam ward. Retrieved 2 dead, 3 seriously injured and 2 minor injuries at District Hospital.  There was live streaming of the Landslide Site, at NST junction, Shantham Ward Mon Town.

The Mock exercise concluded with the briefing from Operation Section Chief, LichemseSangtam, Dist. Comdt. HG &CD & SDRF, Planning Section Chief, Rongsenmenla, SDO (C) Hq. and Logistic Section Chief, llamLungalung, Addl. S.P. The designated observers of 4 vulnerable sites, brief a note of the rescue operation undertaken during the mock drill and identify the gap which need to be covered during the next exercise for better prepared and ready for any eventualities. Deputy Commissioner Mon, Ajit Kumar Verma, IAS, thanked all the officials for the sincere, active participants for the success of the Mock Exercise. He said the role of the leader and the coordination with the members is crucial for the success of every programme.

Zunheboto: At Zunheboto, a simulation of an earthquake, of the magnitude 6.9 on the richter scale was staged, where five incident sites were identified with Step by Step School staging an evacuation and rescue drill, Alahuto Colony/landslide rescue, DEO/building collapse and rescue and District Hospital/serious patient treatment.

Some other important ZDDMA sites were, District Emergency Operation Centre (DEOC) at DC’s Chamber and the remaining, Staging Area, Incident Command Post, Relief Camp, Medical Unit and LSC/OSC/PSC were all organized at Local ground Zunheboto.

During the debriefing programme, Chief Observer of the day emphasized on the dire need to have at least four/five SAT Phones in the district in order to be more mobile, accessible in terms of connectivity. He commended the efforts of all the concerned for the success of the Mega Mock Drill. 

Deputy Commissioner and Chairman DDMAZunheboto, Rahul Bhanudas Mali while sharing his remarks called the mock drill a grand success.

Shamator: In Shamator district, the mock drills were conducted at Government Higher Secondary School Shamator, Market Place (upper police point-high rise) and Community Health Center (CHC) Shamator. The exercise concluded at local ground Shamator.