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My Experience in Earthquake 2001 in Gujarat |
When Earth Quake hit BHUJ (Gujarat) on 26th of January 2001 at 8:40 am IST then....
The place was NIAR (National
Institute of Amateur Radio) Hyderabad�
The day was Friday 26th of January 2001� The time was 8.00 am in the morning� |
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This special was the 52nd Republic Day of India. The day started with normal sunrise and pleasant chirping by the birds according to their normal daily routine I was eagerly waiting for the Parade, which was telecast live by Doordarshan from New Delhi, my native place. I was interested to see the Indian advancement of technology and especially waiting for the cultural programs by the students of any local schools known to me. Suddenly at 9:30 am my friend Jose, VU2JOS informed me of a news flash on Star News regarding an earthquake at some unknown place in North India. The first places that struck my mind were Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. I was anxious about my native place Delhi also, but as the live telecast of the Parade was going on without any interruption on Doordarshan, there was no reason for me to fear. I was enjoying it. Then at 12:05 Jose gave me detailed news of the Earthquake in Gujarat with a lot of casualties. This was disturbing me as there were two schools there, where I stayed and taught Ham Radio for more then six months last year as an Instructor of National Institute of Amateur Radio at Kendriya Vidyalaya, ONGC, and Gujarat Refinery English Medium School, Vadodara.
I immediately went on the band and
searched for any Gujarat stations on the band. Luckily I got Dalvir, VU2SL
from Valsad, but other stations from Ahmedabad and Vadodara etc. were
missing then. Later I came to know that VU2LB Lalith's home had cracked and
damaged while VU2XX Patil was dismantling the equipments for the team of
doctors from Vadodara.
Within next 30 minutes VU2MYH Ram Mohan
came there to collect some data on Internet regarding position of the
earthquake in Gujarat. Upon request from the Govt. of Gujarat Mr. Suri,
VU2MY, Executive Vice Chairman & Director, NIAR asked me to get ready to
move to the earthquake stricken area for relief operations. I started
collecting data from some Internet sites and came to know that the level of
earth quake was 7.9 on Richter scale and that it's epicenter was 20 Kms far
from Bhuj and the casualty by the similar kind of earth quake in some other
country was approximately 15,000. I downloaded the map of Gujarat from
Internet for the convenience and also quickly packed my belongings. Then I
went to the store-room where Jose was busy checking the HAM sets to be sent.
Within short while K. Ravi, VU3RBN also joined us. Mr. Ram VU2LIC, Manager,
NIAR was busy arranging the tickets of Indian airlines.
In the evening five of us viz. VU2LIC
(Team Leader), VU2MYH, VU3RBN, SWL S. V. B. Ramu and myself VU2LFA were in
the flight to Mumbai. We got the connecting flight at 4.45 am next day and
arrived Ahemedabad at 6.00 am on 27th January 2001, i.e. within 24 hours
after the earth quake struck there.
Moses VU2MOS could not join us because he
could not get any ticket from the airport Authority, and came later by the
train with next group of hams.
We Reached at Ahmedabad at 6'O clock in
the morning and got a VIP, who helped in getting a temporary stay in state
guesthouse. Without delaying Mr. Ram, VU2LIC made a request to airport
authority to airlift them to worst effected area of Bhuj for relief
operation.
Luckily the Chief Minister of Gujarat was
going there and gave the airlift to Mr. Ram Mohan VV2MYH & Mr. Ravi VU3RBN
for the Bhuj, the worst effected area.
Myself was at Ahmedabad guesthouse and
without delaying any minute, I installed first HAM VHF station there with
the magmount antenna and base set and got in touch with the Vu2myh and
Vu3rbn, who were at airport waiting the helicopter.
Same time Mr. Ram VU2LIC with SWL S.V.B.
Ramu went to "Sachivalya Secretariat" Gandhi Nagar for the other station,
where Perveen VU2CPV and Prem VU2XMX were waiting. They were present there
with antenna set but without equipment.
Mr. Ram with the help of these local hams
installed the second station and gave the charge to both together from
"National Control Room" Gandhi Nagar at afternoon time.
Meanwhile I was instructed from HAM radio
to come to Sachivalya, Gandhi Nagar after winding up the Ahmedabad local
station, because the need was for the other station. I tried to get
conveyance there, but failed. Later Mr. Ram came to me and we started for
Chief Minister�s residence together for another station.
I with the help of SVB Ramu and local
staff installed the next Station for the relief operation in Gujarat. There
was no emergency traffic as the CM was in the Bhuj and I was busy to
maintain the local traffic to stay on the frequency for this relief
operation with other station in different parts of country. I was there till
11:30 pm on 27th January.
The next day I planned to go to "Rapar"
but due to some other reasons, my program got delayed and I went to airport
at 8:00 pm to receive the Hams from Banglore under leadership of Satyapal
VU2FI. Also, I had to receive the hams (VU2DSV, VU2DVO, VU2MOS, VU2BL, etc.)
from Hyderabad by train at 9:00 p.m.
The Hams of Mumbai were already active on
28th in several effected areas. The Sandeep VU2SXE was with the team of
Surgeon Doctors of Karnataka (Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, Karnataka). He was
present at airport at the same time to receive the doctors from same flight.
His HF Transceiver equipment was damaged so, he requested Mr. Ram to give a
HF set.
Mr. S. B. Ram gave the set to him for
PATAN Civil Hospital.
We started our journey at same time and
reached there next day at 2:30 am i.e. on 29th of January and after taking
little rest at guest-house at PATAN, I installed the new station with new
equipment (as old set of Sandeep was damaged there) at 8:30 am. The First
message sent by Sandeep VU3SXE to Pratap VU2POP / Roma VU2RO at Karnataka
was for Sanjay Gandhi Hospital to send Nurses from hospital, which can help
doctors in operations.
And Similar 2nd message was to send
Ambulance from Karnataka equipped with mini Operation Theater, which can
directly go in the interior parts of effected area. Civil Hospital, PATAN
was the only hospital with permanently equipped RCC structure and with other
facilities in Earthquake affected area.
Now, we four hams were present in one
station on the very first day. So we decided that 2 persons Sandeep VU3SXE &
Dr. Venket VU2COC could go to interiors with ambulance and mobilize with HAM
equipment to provide the communication from there and myself with Madhu
VU3MDD will control the traffic from Civil Hospital Patan.
Now the control of Civil hospital was
with me and Madhu, the main traffic was to Karnataka, so we were working
together from 8:30 to 23:00 IST daily to provide maximum communication. For
coordination, we were taking help of �Sachivalya National Control Station�.
During these 7 days, we passed more than 200 messages.
Maximum messages were related to doctors,
medicine, operation equipment etc. On 30th of January, 2001 Dr.
Murthi (Team leader / HOD) with some senior surgeon doctor left the
hospital, after finishing their work on the causalities of earthquake
victims and left the dressing work on local doctor staff. On February 2nd,
3 more doctors with some nurses� left the hospital and remaining 1 doctor
and 7 nurses were left there. In our relief operation, several VIPs visited.
These include Education Minister Bahan Patel, Ex. Chief Minister, Shanker
Singh Vaghela etc. who appreciated us for our Ham Radio Communication work.
Later, the routine was normal there with
minimal traffic. Madhu requested Pratap, VU2POP for winding up the station
that granted the permission for winding up the station. Same afternoon we
packed up the station and returned back to Gandhinagar with the team of
Delhi Doctors, who were scheduled to catch the flight from Ahmedabad
Airport.
On 2nd February we reached at
CM residence, where Satyapal VU2FI was waiting for us. Later we went to
Circuit house for night stay. Next day, I was instructed to open new station
at �LILPAR�. Later, the plan changed and I found myself at �Civil Hospital
Ahmedabad� with K. Ravi VU3RBN, where some casualties & affected people came
looking for there kith and kin and for coordinating with other health
stations / Ministry.
The first message, passed by me was �
inform to post office�� at BHUJ and similar second was ������ to Air force
control station and so on �
On other side, I got an inquiry from
gurpreet Delhi, VU3GUR regarding some doctors of Panjabi Bagh Delhi who were
willing to work and give precious equipment to various doctors if needed.
The inquiry was so important that later, they went to BHUJ with Dr. Anil
Chadha (Medical Superintendent).
I attended to, several inquiries of
similar nature. The Indian Institute of Management was looking for some
emergency medicine, same message was sent to health ministry, Delhi via
Sarath VU3RSB.
Apart from Medical inquiry, some more
traffic was there especially from West Bengal (Kolkata) and Kerala states
regarding survivals of kith and kin�s in Ahmedabad area. With the help of
local staff and police, I arranged a list of 42 buildings, which were
totally damaged which the administration was demolishing for safety purpose,
as people had shifted to some unknown place. Later, one police control room
was started / wound up in my room in my presence. It was not easy to give
the reply to all the inquiries, so several were pending without proper
replies at Ahmedabad station. Lastly, I returned after the relief operation
on February 09, 2001 with Ms. Bhanu, VU2BL, Mr. Ramu, VU2DVO, and MR.
Snehal, VU3RBQ.
One thing I concluded was that people
were running from affected area without telling anybody, on account of fear.
Also, Government was not ready to help, as it was republic day. Due to slow
Govt. process / machinery, Relief was almost non � existent. At this time
NGO�s were working effectively. There is no provision in Indian Airlines to
give priority to hams to go in relief operation, resulting in our friend
Moses, VU3MOS and some other hams unable to reach there in time, so that
they could save few lives. It is all due to government�s indolent policy. One more time, the TIME showed the government that the HAM radio is again a good tool to deal with any natural or manmade calamity. |
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