Kendrapara: Even as the district administration is leaving no stone unturned to ensure zero casualty by evacuating people living in low lying areas to safer places ahead of the arrival of cyclonic storm Yaas, the coastal district continues to remain vulnerable to natural forces, a report said.
The district administration evacuated over 28,000 people to 570 multipurpose cyclone centres by Tuesday afternoon. As many as 22 teams of fire brigade personnel, police, ODRAF and NDRF are manning the operations.
BJD’s organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das visited the district and reviewed the situation in a meeting with district and block officials.
Mahakalapara MLA Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Rajnagar MLA Dhruba Charan Sahu and Aul MLA Pratap Dev also participated in the meeting The high tidal waves lashing the coast are indicative of the fact that all arrangements made to protect the coast of the district from the wrath of the sea have fallen flat with the natural forces continuing to play havoc in the district.
Villager Harihar Swain of Pentha of Rajnagar block said that even as the district administration is leaving nothing to chance and evacuating the people, the rising tidal waves have cast doubts on the safety and durability of the saline embankment and geo-synthetic tube wall built to protect the sea side of the district from the ravaging forces of nature.
He said, with the sea surface remaining extremely rough, high tidal waves are continuously lashing the coast. The tidal waves could damage the saline embankment if they rise above one metre.
He feared that the tidal waves might cross the coast and ravage his village as the large rocks and gabion boxes in the geo-synthetic tube wall have been washed away into the sea.
The 600-metre geo-synthetic tube wall was built by the state government under the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Programme four years back at a cost of Rs 39 crore to protect Pentha and nearby areas from high waves, cyclones and tsunamis.
Another villager, Kailash Chandra Behera of Magarkanda under Rajnagar block said Yaas could cause substantial damage to the district. The tidal waves which had already destroyed a majority of the villages in seaside Satabhaya have entered the Barahipur village in the area.
The tidal waves had also led to erosion of the tourist site Havelikhati Island. Environmentalist Hemant Kumar Rout, and local intellectuals Khitish Kumar Singh and Pratap Kumar Padi said the cyclonic storm has posed serious threats to the Bhitarkanika National Park.
The high waves have led to erosion of Agarnasi, Babubali, Chinchiri islands in Gahirmatha range. The tidal waves have also destroyed the saline embankments at Talachua and Purusottampur.
PNN
