26-Nov-2018: RIMES terms Titli cyclone ‘rarest of rare’

The Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES) for Africa and Asia, a 45-nation international organisation on disaster warning, has termed ‘Titli’, the severe cyclonic storm that devastated Odisha in October, as ‘rarest cyclone’.

“More than 200 years of cyclone track history in the Odisha coast reveals that the Titli cyclone is the rarest of rare in terms of its characteristics such as re-curvature after landfall and retaining its destructive potential after landfall and re-curvature away from the coastal areas for more than two days,” RIMES said in its latest report.

“Considering the history of cyclone tracks, no synthetic track projection captures the Titli type of cyclones. The forecast information available lacks actionable early warning information such as no indication of occurrence of secondary hazards, including landslides far away from the coasts.”

The severe cyclonic storm left more than 60 people dead, mainly due to land slide in interior Gajapati district. Odisha, which takes immense pride in disaster preparedness, was confounded in the wake of the damage to both life and property caused by Titli in interior districts.

Earlier, India Meteorological Department had called the formation of Titli as a ‘rarest of rare’ occurrence. The severe cyclone had changed its path after landfall.

According to RIMES, the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority faced challenges in anticipating and managing Titli's impact due to lack of impact-based actionable early warning information and prior experience not only in India but also elsewhere.

“The OSDMA, by learning the lessons from Titli cyclone, could evolve measures to minimise impacts in both coastal and non-coastal regions more effectively in future,” .

“The State government actions linked to the cyclone-risk management are also heavily focused on the coastal areas where cyclones cross at their peak intensities. Therefore, coastal areas now have been largely well managed through evacuations and other protocols, leading to zero casualties in these areas.”

“The highest number of casualties occurred in a village called Baraghara in Gajapati district due to landslides. People did not evacuate, as the risk is unknown and also not expected. There was no pin-pointed forecast available what will happen where,”.

The RIMES has recommended that a detailed risk assessment has to be carried out for Odisha to understand the risks in the light of the Titli devastation.

16-Mar-2018: Odisha Government signs MoU with RIMES

The Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES), an UN-registered agency would collaborate with Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) to strengthen its quality, prediction ability and response capacity. The issue was discussed at a high level meeting and was decided to set up an integrated multi-hazard early warning system in the state.

The State of Odisha is vulnerable to natural disasters like Cyclone, Flood, Tsunami and Drought. In the recent past, increasing numbers of death tolls due to lightning, heat wave and road accidents have been a major concern. The objective of the State Government is to ensure zero casualty for all disasters. The State Government has taken up various initiatives for strengthening the early warning systems by implementing latest technologies and building partnerships with international agencies to curb the rising number of death tolls due to various disasters. The State Government has enter into a collaboration with the Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (RIMES), Thailand on development and pilot implementation of decision support systems. RIMES Thailand, is a UN Registered international and inter-governmental institution, owned and managed by its 48 Members and Collaborating States for building capacities in the generation and application of user-relevant early warning information. In India, it has collaborated with the government of Tamilnadu through establishment of a long-term collaborative programme to enhance Early Warning System for all natural hazards.

The project aims to strengthen the technical capacities of Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) through development of various Decision Support System (DSS) tools by utilizing the recent innovations of information technology. These tools shall be developed by completely understanding the underlying day-to-day operational challenges for the identified priority hazards and the best way to overcome these challenges though utilization of technology.

RIMES shall develop the decision support system for the priority hazards independently and integrated into One-Stop Risk Management System. The system shall have flexibility to accommodate emerging needs for OSDMA. In the future, DSS shall be built with open-source software platforms and public domain data sets with full involvement of all line departments connected with OSDMA and other collaborating agencies. Capacity building of professionals at OSDMA and the line departments on the DSS tools to ensure sustained operations as well as for system upgradation in future.

The DSS tools shall be designed to have multiple layers of user access control and limit the roles and responsibility of the different category of users. The tools are expected to assist in decision making so the target users for the tools are basically OSDMA and the line departments who are directly affected by the disasters.

The project components are intended to be developed over a period of 3 years and then put to operation for the next two years. During this time the tools also will undergo evaluation, improvements and refinements based on feedback from the users at different levels. Finally, all tools and technologies shall be transferred to the OSDMA and relevant departments of Government of Odisha.

The state has successfully managed major calamities like very severe cyclone Phailin in 2013 and Hudhud, another cyclone in 2014. It had also faced and managed around five floods and three droughts since 2000.

The United Nations had appreciated the state government’s effort of managing the cyclone Phailin that hit the state in October 2013 and announced Odisha as a model state for disaster management programme.