People take part in a mini-marathon ot celebrate National Press Day in Bhubaneswar. The event was organised by the Press Club of Odisha. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 16: National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) vice-chairman M. Shashidhar Reddy praised not only the government for large-scale evacuations ahead of cyclone Phailin, but also the media for its relentless reportage at the time of crisis.

Reddy was interacting with mediapersons at the Press Club of Odisha on the occasion of National Press Day today.

“Over the years, the loss of life has reduced, but the loss of property has increased because the infrastructure has increased. It is estimated that two per cent of the GDP is lost in such disasters,” said Reddy, who has been a member of NDMA since its inception in 2005. He added that methods had to be adopted to avoid power disruption and ways to purify water in case another cyclone hit the state in the near future.

He said that once the Prime Minister had asked him if people of this country could go to sleep peacefully knowing that nothing would happen to them. “Though science and technology have advanced, I am most worried about earthquakes,” he had replied.

“We have prior warnings for cyclones, tsunamis and floods but not for earthquakes. Any earthquake above eight on the Richter scale will claim about one million lives,” he said.

Reddy said there were clearance agencies in place that needed to look into civic construction violations. He said that at a meeting with Planning Commission officials recently, he had asked for the systematic approach of Disaster Risk Reduction to be made part of all flagship programmes.