Acehtsunami

The Community Radio Forum, India and its partner organizations propose to set up temporary radio stations in the flood affected areas of Bihar to assist the local administration and provide the flood affected people with vital information through radio broadcasts on the following key areas:

1. Critical Flood and Emergency Warnings: to alert people in advance of possible further threat(s) in order to help them take preventive measures and/or direct them to safer areas.

2. Missing Person alerts: Hundreds of families have been separated in the flood emergency, with an unknown number of people missing, especially children. Emergency radio stations can play an important role in identifying and reuniting these families.

3. Information on Relief Measures: including information on locations and time of relief material distribution, medical camps etc.

4. Health alerts: for evacuees / flood victims including epidemic warnings, medical safeguards and first aid, sanitation and hygiene information, location of medical camps etc.

5. Providing Accurate Information: Countering unconfirmed information and rumours that can trigger panic among an already disturbed population. It becomes vitally important to maintain the flow of authentic and reliable information.

Lighting is not recognized by Government of India as a disaster for Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) though large number of human beings, houses and Cattles were affected every year in particular areas, most of the time it affects individuals and limited people, no damage to total community. Incidences are less but have severe damage to life and property. Some states have taken initiatives and providing certain assistance to the affected people from state funds. Recently most of the states have already requested the Central Government to include Lighting as one of the disaster, so that affected people would get some benefit.

Lighting safety awareness has been under taken by some of the Eastern and North Eastern States to educate the people on lighting safety. In individual cases people have adopted the lighting protections to the houses and adopted safety measures to reduce the risk by staying inside the house and disconnecting the electronic equipments and avoiding the contact of any iron materials during lighting time. In community level some places are isolated because of more frequent lighting during rainy season.

The Bureau of Indian Standards Code outlines the general technical aspects of lightning, illustrating its principal electrical, thermal and mechanical effects. Guidance is given on how to assess the risk of being struck and it offers a method of compiling an index figure as an aid in deciding if a particular structure is in need of protection.  The Code also offers guidance on good engineering practice and the selection of suitable materials. Recommendations are made for special cases such as explosives stores and temporary structures, for example, cranes, spectator stands constructed of metal scaffolding. Where current carrying conductors are directly associated with structures coming within the scope of this Code, certain recommendations relating to them are included; however, the protection of overhead telephone wires, radar stations, electric traction and supply lines should, on account of their special nature, be referred to the specialists. The code provides a map highlighting Average Number of Thunderstorm days (ATD) in a year in some places in India.