New disaster resistant measures targeting schools, highrises

Chamikara WEERASINGHE

School and student safety and high-rise building protection will be given major focus as the country’s disaster management experts introduce a ‘framework of action” for disaster resilience in due course.

Disaster Management Center’s Director General Maj Gen Gamini Hettiarachchi yesterday told the Daily News that they are working out guidelines for student safety that would make schools a safer place for children in times of disaster of any kind, be it an earth tremor or floods.

He said, “ the disaster managers and geoligists have s felt the need to promote a culture of disaster prevention in the country following recent earth tremors and other natural disasters.

“Reducing the impact of any possible threat on children against any type of disaster is important,” he explained.

“However, minor , there have been slight tremors and trembling in some buildings. We have received complaints,” he said.

“What was experienced in the country on Saturday was a minor earthquake, even negligible in terms of damage,” he explained.

“ We are going to make the children aware about how they should act in the event of an earthquake. We will also include in our guidelines how people should vacate a building in an emergency,” he said. Asked about the Disaster Centre’s level of preparedness for the prevention of a major disaster, Maj Gen Hetttiarachchi said they have developed mechanism to encounter major flood situations , landslides or even a disastrous tsunami.

“We have done that over the years and now we can alert the public and dispatch to vulnerable areas to arrest the conditions,” he said. Geological Survey and Mines Bureau Director Anil Peiris said that the United States Geolgical Survey has not recorded recent earth tremors that were experienced in Sri Lanka.

“They were so small that their equipment have not indicated them. Sri Lanka’s Geological Surveys and Mines Bureau has assumed that the tremors were 3 to 3.5 on the Richter Scale,” he explained.