Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 19: The timely action and the advanced planning by the Jammu district administration have helped in saving over 2800 lives during the recent flash floods.
In anticipation of monsoon season advance meetings were convened in the month of June and July for reviewing flood response preparedness. After reviewing the past experiences, Flood Response Plan was revised and activated.
In view of various inputs received from various sources a detailed alert was issued to all Revenue/Police and other emergency services on the night of 3rd of September,2014 regarding forecast of bad weather in next three days.
People staying in low lying areas were alerted and arrangements for their evacuation was made. They were sounded to stay away from vulnerable and landslide prone areas.
On September 4, evacuation from low lying areas and vulnerable areas was started on both sides of river Tawi. People were vacated by the field staff of Revenue Department and police. On rising of water level in Chenab beyond 30 ft villagers of Mawa Kharora and Inderi were evacuated. People from more villages like Dhar Khour, Channi Dewanoo, Platan etc were also evacuated.
For those people, who didn’t move out of their houses despite being sounded well in time, defence forces were also used for their evacuation. In the night of September 4, people of Dhar Khour and Channi Dewanoo were evacuated with the help of army.
On September 5, Air Force was also pressed into service and large number of people were evacuated with the help of helicopters.
Due to prompt action and advanced planning, the Jammu district administration saved lives of 2876 persons by timely evacuating them from the flooded areas. A total of 2001 persons were evacuated from Garkhal, Chak Skinder and Gurha Manhasan areas while as 531 were evacuated from Indri, Bhagwati Nagar, Gujral and Pallanwala areas.
Similarly, 235 persons were evacuated from Bhagwati Nagar, Satraiyal and Indri while as 109 from Mawa Karora and Hamirpur Kona.
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