Cyclone Hudhud: Prior information from MeT helped in reducing casualties, says Jay Panda

As Cyclone Hudhud wreaked havoc in Odisha, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Member of Parliament Jay Panda on Wednesday said that prior information from the Meteorological (MeT) department helped in the evacuation and arrangement of food, medicines and doctors.

"Over the last 15 years the Odisha Government, the Disaster Management Authority, the State Rapid Action Force have become very experienced and because of the advance information from the MeT department, for several days the advance evacuation was done with placement of food and medicines and arrangement of doctors," said Panda.

"The advanced work goes a long way to minimizing the casualties. We had a zero casualties target although it was not zero but it was very-very less, and that I think is a good achievement," he added.

He said that Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has himself reviewed the status and further steps are now being taken.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had chaired a high-level meeting in Visakhapatnam with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and senior officials to take stock of the damage inflicted by Cyclone Hudhud.

The Prime Minister also announced a package of Rs two lakh to the families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured.

Cyclone Hudhud's devastation in the state has left at least 24 people dead so far.