“I am an Assistant Professor at Baba Institute of Technology & Sciences ( BITS) in Vishakhapatnam and was working from home due the COVID-19 lockdown when the LG Polymers plant gas leak incident took place.
Not much later, all the residents of Vizag had grasped the gravity of the situation and a large number of people who were residing close to the incident site – RR Venkatapuram, started rushing out of their houses to neighbouring villages. Mogalipuram was one such village that saw hundreds of migrants.
It was 11:45 a.m. when I received an emergency call from my friend, Pradeep Kumar, co-founder of our organization, WeHelp Group, to help the victims of the gas leak.
He works in the Grama Sachivalayam Office in Mogalipuram and was on checkpoint duty that day. He was coordinating with the local volunteers to alert the villagers to stay at home and take necessary precautions. The moment I got to know about the situation in the village, I rushed to join hands with Pradeep who was already helping the locals. We could see people run around for help. Few even fell unconscious on the road. It was a panic situation. What bothered us most was seeing the people running around in search of drinking water. So we started buying water and fruit juices for them. In the afternoon we had arranged food for more than 400 people with the help of our college management and things started getting back to normal. By 8 p.m., the situation seemed under control and everyone moved back to their hometowns.
But around midnight, at 12:30 a.m., there were rumours of another gas leak at the same plant. We received phone calls about people running out of their homes once again. A bigger area was evacuated by the authorities that night. We immediately arranged for a college bus and transported few families to the BITS premises. Thanks to the college management, we were able to arrange beds and accommodation for more than 100 people that night. We also provided milk and breakfast to them the next morning.
By yesterday evening, things came back to normal and we were able to send the people back to their respective villages safely. What happened in Vizag over the last two days must be considered as a warning sign for other industries which are resuming operations and the state government should implement strict guidelines and regulations to avoid such tragedies in the future!”
#VizagGasTragedy #People #Trauma #Tension #HelpingHands #VizagGasLeak #Disaster #PrayforVizag #Rescue #Water #Help #Food #Hunger #Tragedy #Responsibility #Humanity #Andhra #HumansofAndhra