No major disasters reported in the wake of bad weather |17 January 2013

This came to light Wednesday when various agencies involved in dealing with disasters when they arise met to assess the damage done by bad weather over the past two days.

Taking part in the meeting were representatives from the Department of Risk and Disaster Management (DRDM), Department of Environment, Department of Community Development, Public Utilities Corporation (PUC), Red Cross Society, Meteorological Services, Fire and Rescue Services Agency and the Police Department.

The meeting, held at the DRDM headquarters at Mont Fleuri, was also attended by the principal secretary for environment Wills Agricole.
 
Most of the agencies had received reports of some kind of incident, and the meeting was to assess the damages and report on the progresses made on each case.

Each agency reported on cases received over the past two days, where the Department of Community Development reported 23 cases they are dealing with, which are mostly flooding, retaining walls that are crumbling, and trees falling on houses.

The Department of Environment reported 25 cases so far, out of which five were forwarded to the DRDM, and some to the PUC. Out of those 25, some were reported to them by the public, and others their officers had seen during routine monitoring and dealt with upon discovery.
 
As for the police, they said they received 13 phone calls, which they forwarded to each district’s authorities.

The Fire and Rescue Services Agency said they have had only four cases, out of which the worst was a tree falling on a car in the Pascal Village region.

The PUC also reported trees falling on electricity lines, and a tree threatening to fall on a house at St Louis, which they are dealing with, while the Red Cross Society said they did not have anything significant to report.

The Met services said that although the rainy season is not yet over, the bad weather – which had gained force from January 9 onwards – should subside a bit by Thursday.

“To date we have recorded only 26% of our normal rainfall for this season, so we are anticipating more rain to come,” said Vincent Amelie from the Met services.

The panel told Seychelles Nation that although each of them had received reports, they would also do a cross-checking of individual cases, to ensure that there was no duplication of cases, which is a common occurrence when people report the same disasters to various agencies.

The experts said that we should expect more rain and even bad weather ahead, but are asked to note that all these are not abnormal events, and the important thing is to adapt to them since they are annual occurrences.

“People should keep in mind that we need rain, and so we should adapt ourselves to the situation and become more resilient, especially in building stronger infrastructure such as walls and houses for when rain falls,” they said.