India Meteorological Department's pinpoint accuracy of Cyclone Fani praised by the UN

Guwahati: The pinpoint accuracy of India Meteorological Department (IMD) has been commended by the UN agency for disaster reduction saying that IMD's early warnings have helped authorities conduct a well-targeted evacuation plan and minimize the loss of life as extremely severe cyclonic Fani made landfall near the coastal city of Puri.

The death toll in the strongest cyclone in the last 43 years has risen to 12 and large areas in the seaside pilgrim town of Puri and other places were submerged as heavy rains battered the entire coastal belt of the state affecting about 11 lakh people.

The UN agencies are monitoring Fani's movements closely and they are taking measures to protect families living in refugee camps in Bangladesh which is on alert.

The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)and head of the Geneva-based UN office for DRR, Mami Mizutori said that India's zero-casualty approach to managing extreme weather events is a major contribution to the implementation of the Sendai Framework and the reduction of loss of life from such events.

Mizutori referred to the Sendai Framework for DRR 2015-2030 which was the first major agreement of the post-2015 development agenda. Mizutori said that it is a 15-year voluntary, non-binding agreement which recognizes that the state has the primary role to reduce disaster risk but that responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders including the local government, the private sector and other stakeholders.

Spokesperson for UNISDR Denis McClean highlighted the zero-casualty cyclone preparedness policy of the Government of India saying that the almost pinpoint accuracy of the early warnings from the IMD had enabled the authorities to conduct a well-targeted evacuation plan which had involved moving more than one million people into storm shelters.

In a tweet, UNISDR said, "The advisory distributed by India's National Disaster Management Authority and local authorities days before Fani which made landfall in Odisha has made an effort to minimize loss of life and injury."

Spokesperson to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Stephane Dujarric said that the UN humanitarian agencies in India have met ahead of the storm's arrival to take stock of the preparedness measures.

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