Simulation Game: Crisis Management-Chapter 351 - 173: Once-in-a-Century Devastating Flood

Before coming to Calcutta, Gu Ji had already explained the severity of this disaster to Lanate, who then communicated with the Chief Minister of West Bengal over the phone, as the traffic in Calcutta city was already poor, and the heavy rain made it even more congested.

Therefore, to save travel time, the Chief Minister gathered all the high-ranking officials of the state government to wait at Bose International Airport.

They planned to hold the emergency response meeting directly on the airport runway.

"Vidi, there’s news from the Farakka Dam, the villagers gathered near the site have all been successfully evacuated by the anti-explosion unit, and they are now checking the riverbank areas for any left-behind people."

"Good, have them speed up the inspection and leave the vicinity of the Hugli River as soon as possible."

"Mr. Vidhi, these are all the high-ranking leaders of the West Bengal Government. This is Chief Minister Neha, Chief Minister, this is the disaster relief commissioner from the Central Cabinet Government I mentioned to you over the phone: Vidhi Dali."

Just as Gu Ji stepped out of the cabin, Fatima and Lanate spoke almost at the same time.

Lanate led him to this group of government officials and introduced him to the leading lady.

This was also Gu Ji’s first encounter with a high-ranking female official, as it was rare for a woman to hold such a position in India due to racial, religious, and other customs.

Moreover, her skin was dark, indicating she was not from a high-caste lineage.

She appeared to be around forty years old, wearing her black hair in a ponytail with a red mark on her forehead, dressed in a silk robe with a brown-green sash slung across her chest, exuding Indian cultural symbolism, signaling her status.

Neha was slightly startled upon seeing Gu Ji, seemingly not expecting him to be so young.

The other government officials wore similarly complex expressions, as they had heard from Lanate that this "Vidi" had a way to minimize the risks posed by the Farakka Dam, but seeing him now made them waver.

Gu Ji pressed his hands together in a simple gesture of greeting.

"Hello, Chief Minister, the situation is urgent. The Farakka Dam could breach at any moment, so we don’t have much time. Has the state government initiated any actions yet?"

"We are already organizing the firefighting team to reinforce the embankments along the riverbank."

Neha had just spoken when a fire captain dressed in an orange reflective rescue uniform stood up behind her.

"We have mobilized a total of 907 personnel from the fire department and city engineering team, currently constructing a temporary flood barrier with fire sandbags along the banks at a size of 30x70 cm, with a width of 90 cm and a height of 3 meters, reinforcing it with a flood net. However, as it’s a time of bathing and prayer at the Hugli River banks for the people, the implementation is a bit slow, and we’ve only laid over 130 meters so far..."

The sense of crisis in the Calcutta fire captain was noticeably stronger than that of the Gauhati captain, as the latter needed Gu Ji to actively suggest building a flood barrier to the county chief.

Unfortunately, their environmental situations were entirely different.

When Gu Ji suggested to the Gauhati county chief to build sandbag dikes, it was solely to prevent backflow from torrential downpours caused by tropical low pressure, "Fire captain, pardon my bluntness, but it’s too late to build a flood barrier now. We might be facing a once-in-fifty, or even a hundred-year flood. Many parts of Calcutta were originally large wetlands with low elevation and abundant groundwater. If a flood occurs, the consequences are unimaginable. We must immediately initiate the Level I emergency response plan, establish an emergency command center, and coordinate the evacuation of the entire city’s populace."

"Evacuate? That’s easy to say. There are 16 million people in Calcutta. What kind of transportation would we need to move these people away in such a short time?"

The first person to jump in and speak out was inevitably the Minister of Transportation.

Before Gu Ji could respond, Lanate quickly rebutted on his behalf.

"Vidi thought about this long ago; he doesn’t intend to follow the traditional refugee relocation plan, moving people from Calcutta city to disaster relief centers. Instead, they will be dispersed through multiple routes."

"Dispersed through multiple routes?"

Many government officials found this term quite "novel."

Gu Ji took out his phone and displayed the satellite map in front of everyone, marked with numerous red locations he had observed while flying over the metropolis by helicopter, "When I was coming, I researched the data. The Calcutta metropolitan area covers 1750 square kilometers, with the main urban area stretching along the Hugli River’s banks in a north-south range, with an elevation between 1.5 and 9 meters, higher in the west and lower in the east."

"Urban planning can roughly be divided into northern, central, and southern districts. The north consists mostly of historical old buildings and slums, with generally low structures that lack the capability to withstand major floods, classified as ’high damage risk’ zones. However, the central and southern zones are different; they are Calcutta’s CBD and elite residential areas, with elevated ground and many tall buildings, including Central Park."

"My idea is that residents outside the main urban area can all move eastward, as far away from the Hugli River banks as possible, using higher ground and slopes to evade flood disasters. Meanwhile, the densely populated main urban area’s northern residents can be relocated to the high-rise buildings in the central and southern districts for refuge, especially Matan Park, which is the highest point in the city center and a vast open space, which can serve as a temporary disaster relief center. The effect of building a flood barrier here by the fire department would be much more significant than along the river bank!"