Sikkim Visit- Post 18th Sept. 2011 earthquake

My second trip to Sikkim this time was well restricted within the state capital, Gangtok. The priority task was to start rehabilitation activities in a damaged school identified during the last trip. It has been a part of our long term agenda of school safety, where through reconstruction of schools we are looking at Sikkim for:

• Strengthening of existing school building stock
• Introduce and integrating the concepts of safety and accessibility in school buildings
• Conducting dissemination programmes on safe construction to various user groups including the local government

To begin with, we started our work in Lumsey Junior School, which is within Gangtok city limits and has two classrooms damaged. The idea is not only to repair the damage and strengthen the school building, but also utilize this opportunity for hands-on training of masons on retrofitting activities. Me and Rehman (from SEEDS) started with interviews and discussions, and taking necessary information from the site including pictures and measurements.

Rapid visual surveys during my first visit and also by the SEEDS team members on their respective visits had helped us finalize Lumsey then. Lumsey seemed to be the best accessible school as we would want various groups such as engineers from various agencies and government departments, schools, and other groups to visit the school and interact. Currently, we are undergoing the process of finalising on a small team and also look forward to conduct our activities in the Junior High until the end of March 2012. Rakhi has joined us on SEEDS payrolls, and two masons from D.A. soon to join us.

Pictures of Lumsey school can be accessed here .

Lumsey Junior High School (Link to Picasa album)

Other than this, I also tried making a note on post earthquake activities undertaken by other agencies. It appeared from the news reports and discussions with peers that a clearer picture on larger funding from the Prime Minister’s and Chief Minister’s and other grants is still awaited by the administration and the civil society. It is interesting to see the debate at all levels on the mode of earthquake response the State should adopt in the future. Talks about meetings and conferences aiming for improvement in bye laws and infrastructure provisioning can be heard.

With a population of 6,00,000, Sikkim is a closely knit society. One and all are aware of the post earthquake consequences in the state, and have empathy for each other. House owners in towns such as Chungthang had to bear heavy losses. The rehabilitation style of an ex-gratia compensation by the government –as in this case, Rs.50,000 does not seem logical enough for a place like Sikkim.

It is unfortunate that one of the most prosperous States of India has no ready technical help available to its people in terms of safer building awareness and construction technology, and/or and/or counseling that would help them cope with this huge disruption in their lives and livelihoods- it being the need of the hour.

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Written: Chandra Bhakuni

Checks and Reviews: Pratul Ahuja, Shruti Nair, Smriti Saraswat

Risk of a Stampede

This is in continuation to our previous post. As correctly put across by many of our friends and which we agree to, safety-drills in schools is definitely a step forward in saving lives. We also intend to continue this discussion, because we feel a few questions were left unanswered in our last post. These are as following:

1. What is the likelihood of a stampede when conducting such evacuation drills in schools?
2. Drop-Duck-Cover-Hold versus other methods?
3. Why authorities in developing countries are blamed complacent about conducting such drills?

While we leave it to later or subject specific experts to comment the last two of the above, we surely can put across a viewpoint for the first one.

The answer is, the likelihood is VERY LOW; and perhaps needs an explanation.

While a false alarm may cause panic - evacuation drills and actual disaster events (natural) are mostly coordinated events. The likelihood could have been Zero/Nil, but stampedes might occur when spaces are crowded. Crowd management is one answer, and the researches continue and awarenesses increase. See for example, Wikipedia lists about thirty stampede related events in the last century, and now thirty in the first decade itself. One thing we can note that is our exposure to such information has increased. Other thing to note is that people, unlike or like animals, when they don’t have a clear sense of purpose in being present in a place, and a place overcrowded, become victims of chaos and stampede. Events like riots, congregation for a sporting event or a religious ceremony are the only examples in the list - others can be put in as outliers.

Thankfully, in most places where education and its spaces are taken seriously, much of the problem is averted by mere alertness and prevention.

Emergency planning, small passages, barricades or no barricade, control crowd flow, work on a balanced crowd ratio (or movement) in a crowded space are some examples.

And, Schools and educational places are the places where this can be taught.

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Stampedes, scientifically (more precisely in Physics) are in the domain of a word called ‘Impulse’. Impulse is also defined as change in momentum of a body, in other words, changes in Mass and Velocities of relative bodies. And when there are too many bodies, there is bound to be various speeds and masses, and these bodies would collide.

Two ways –human’s can act beyond natural is perhaps as following:

1. By controlling speed variation
2. Make oneself lighter

Not only keep your instincts natural when getting out, keep your speed in check, and off your weight from the other. In other words, keep it easy and cautious together when the alarm bell rings.

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References:

• Dec 1^st 1958 Chicago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyslGbvSdxE&feature=related
• Wikipedia definition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stampede
• Google search on definition of stampede http://www.google.co.in/search?q=define%3A+stampede&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
• Google search on definition of impulse http://www.google.co.in/search?q=define%3A+Impulse&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
• Through Wikipedia a news report tells us, how not to follow the flow and fall flat on the chest http://www.slate.com/id/2209135/

India Natural Disaster Safety Portal launch

We are glad to have the beta version of the School and Hospital Safety Portal inaugurated today by the NDMA (Government of India) at New-Delhi today.

Aiming for safety - by being a knowledge and resource portal for Schools and Hospitals, and local communities as well, this portal has some interesting features.

Such as-

1. Registering School or Hospital's Safety Profile online

2. District level natural hazard status in India.
   Hazards covered currently are - 1) Earthquakes , 2) Tsunami, 3) Floods, & 4) Wind/Cyclones

3. A Library
   

4. FREE Downloading and Ordering of awareness Games and Posters

The various players who worked sleepless nights on making this portal a reality can be seen here. Beta version will be further improved upon with fine tunings and fixings in next coming months.

Please do regularly visit the site.