Eye of the storm: Administration not prepared to deal with Cyclone Nilofar, citizens say

The situation is not alarming - there is no need to create panic, says commissioner.

KARACHI:

Cyclone Nilofar may have created a furore among the people living on the coastal belt but it appears the authorities responsible for mitigating the effects of the possible disaster remain unmoved. The cyclone is expected to hit the Pakistan coast on Wednesday evening.

Seaview Residents Society general secretary Dr Mir Piracha said that contrary to what its name suggests, the cyclone would be far from beautiful. He said the city administration, the Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and the Cantonment Board Clifton (CBC) had not taken any precautionary steps. "They didn't even tell us about any precautionary measures we [the residents] could take, considering we would be the hardest hit."

The residents are planning to start a door-to-door awareness campaign themselves, said Piracha. "This is a serious matter and we have no idea how badly it could impact the coastal belt," he said.

Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui assures the situation is not alarming. "This is why we haven't issued a warning to residents of the coastal belt in DHA or Seaview." He said that the administration did not want to create panic. "I assure you that the administration is fully prepared to deal with any damage the cyclone wreaks."

Siddiqui said it was possible that the cyclone would even subside. "But rest assured, we have standard operating procedures to deal with this and are setting up temporary camps for residents along the coastal belt," he said.

MAP DESIGN: ESSA MALIK MAP SOURCE: ACCUWEATHER

The commissioner said the administration had imposed Section 144 on visiting areas around the coastal belt and requested fishermen to return to coast as soon as possible.

A CBC spokesman said that they have initiated a drive to take all necessary measures while Karachi Metropolitan Corporation administrator Rauf Akhtar Farooqui was not available for comments.

The DHA is also moving slowly. "Truth be told, the DHA has taken no steps to ensure the safety of its residents," said a DHA official on the condition of anonymity. He said they learned about the approaching cyclone through the media and decided to launch localised awareness drives in clubs and union areas.

A DHA spokesman said that their disaster management committee met, under its secretary Brigadier (retd) Inaam Karim's supervision, on Monday to discuss the precautionary measures. "We have updated our website and are uploading all the information we can get on the cyclone," he said. It was also suggested to announce a three-day holiday (from Wednesday to Friday), he said, adding that they had asked outdoor advertising companies to chain their signboards and to remove the shaky ones as soon as possible.

He said that residents of the DHA had little to worry about because they had a state-of the-art storm-drain system. "Even if there is heavy rain, water will not stand on the streets."

A spokesman of the Karachi Port Trust said their standard operating procedure in the wake of a cyclone or sea storm is to move their ships from the berth to deep sea to prevent the ships from crashing into the berth.

The Provisional Disaster Management Authority has advised people living along the coastal belt to keep an ear out for the news. "They should keep up to date for news bulletins on television and radio so that they know the level of the tropical cyclone when it hits the area," PDMA operations director Akhlaque Qureshi said.

The Sindh Branch of Pakistan Red Crescent Society has placed its urban emergency response teams on high alert to deal with any possible emergency. In a statement on Monday, the Sindh Red Crescent said they would also have paramedics on standby.

The emergency response teams have identified evacuation routes. The Red Crescent's control room will open at Hilal-i-Ahmer House, Clifton, on Wednesday night. The contact number for the control

room is 021-35836281.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued a cyclone safety measures checklist.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2014.