Response and Rescue operation in Bhuj Earthquake India

Bhuj Earthquake India Read Here

Search and rescue operations

All sizes and hues, relief equipment, personnel and rescue teams with their equipment.
Transportation trucks at times were not available and there was difficulty in finding labour for loading and unloading material which caused avoidable and critical delays.

International Community – Response

17 Search and Rescue (SAR) teams made up of 399 rescuers and 26 rescue dogs equipped with technical and rescue equipment assisted in the search and rescue operation.
Teams from Switzerland, Scotland, Mexico, France, Spain, Poland, Turkey, Japan were most active in this task.
More than 300 persons were rescued alive in the first 5 days.
CARE Canada & Norway arrived in Bhuj with 2650 tents.
40 persons relief team were engaged in relief work.
The medical teams with medicines arrived from France, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, and other countries.
66 countries, 24 other international donors/various international organisations sent rescue teams including sniffer dogs, relief materials and mobile hospitals.

Response within the country

Several CSOs/NGOs/philanthropists and rescue teams rushed to Gujarat from all over the country.
Gujaratis and residents of different states set up community kitchens. One such was set up in Adesar by an organisation called ‘Jain Sasan’ of Mumbai in which more than 3500 persons were served food per day.
Air force was bringing airmen everyday for Ahmedabad in which a large number of ex-servicemen came forward to work for the rescue and relief .
Transportation facilities were extended for relief material abroad With free handling facilities to charter flights bringing in relief materials.
By 5th February 2001 – financial assistance of IRS 500.00 Crores equaling USD 1 billion by Central govt. was commited.
In addition, 95,000 MT of food, other materials like clothing and tents, medical supplies and personnel, fuel and communication equipment were made available.

Health initiatives

The army colonel whose unit was airlifted for emergency medical operations due to their experience of handling the cyclone in Orissa and earthquake in Latur stated that he hadn’t had a bath for 4 days.
He could predict a pattern in the inflow of patients in disasters who start trickling in after the first 24 hrs and the flow becoming a deluge after 48 hrs and tapering off after nearly 7 days.
Indian doctors worked as a team with foreign health teams.
Foreign mobile hospitals were operational within 24 hrs of their arrival.

Rescue Operations

Involved Personas:

A Participatory Approach

Disaster management is primarily responsibility of State Governments.
The Government of India supplements state through policy and administrative response.
Policy response comprises of activating administrative machinery for assisting relief measures and monitoring progress.
Administrative response comprises of primary and secondary relief functions.

Reconstruction Activities

The reconstruction process involves a wide range of activities. For the

purpose of this paper, these activities have been grouped under the following titles.

The next sections analyze the mitigation aspect of each of these activities.

Key activities:

Mapping and property database
Preparation of a city-level development plan
The development of urban infrastructure
Town planning schemes to redevelop the walled city
Experiments in community planning, institution building and supporting civil society initiatives.

Disaster waste disposal

Recycling all debris after a disaster was costly and disruptive

Choosing 100 per cent recycling would be great for the environment, but cost more and take a lot longer.