SDRF, NDRF and fire units are ready to act fast to save lives during monsoon floods
Hyderabad: The concept of “golden hour”, the critical 60 minutes to save a life following a severe medical crisis or traumatic injury, has now made its debut in rescue and relief operations in the state. With the monsoon season just around the corner, and sudden downpours resulting in fast rising rivulets, and streams causing flash floods, the disaster management department of the Telangana government has put in place across the state 12 companies of SDRF comprising personnel drawn from the Telangana Special Police, which between them, can reach any location in the state within one hour.
The inability of rescue and relief teams to quickly reach places hit by sudden heavy floods in during the August and September rains in 2024 was the impetus to ensure that this time around, we should not lose the golden hour, Arvind Kumar, special chief secretary, disaster management, said.
“In addition, there are now three reams of NDRF in the state, and these teams, along with the SDRF and TGSP teams, jointly with district fire stations, will work in coordination, and this year, we are much better prepared, and in advance, to deal with heavy rains and flash floods in our attempts to minimizing damages and loss of lives,” Arvind Kumar told Deccan Chronicle.
With respect to Hyderabad city and the Ranga Reddy district, HYDRAA has requite men and materials to attend to flood relief works. There will also be the SDRF/TGSP teams for any flood relief and rescue work in the city, he added.
In addition to these efforts, the irrigation department too has been gearing up for faster, and accurate flood predictions in the state, particularly in the Krishna and Godavari river basin areas of Telangana. Just a few days ago, Telangana irrigation officials had a meeting with their counterparts from Maharashtra and Karnataka on exchanging real time information on rainfall which can provide early warning at least two days before a flood event occurs at a location.
“This exercise is part of the Integrated Flood Management System that can also help us ‘create digital twins’ of flood events to simulate and visualize potential impact of floods, and project flood progression in different time blocks so preparedness can be improved,” a senior irrigation department official said.
As part of the overall flood management preparedness, all district collectors have been instructed to ensure the SDRF units allocated for work in their respective districts are acquainted with locations vulnerable to flooding that can help in better handling of any emerging situation, Arvind Kumar added.
