Civil Defense of Rio performs evacuation simulation of risk areas

The Municipal Civil Defense of Rio de Janeiro carried out, this Wednesday (12), a simulated exercise to evacuate areas with a high risk of landslides and rockslides and barrier collapses on days of intense rain and storms. The training took place in the community of Cantagalo, in the south of Rio, whose siren also serves the Morro do Pavão-Pavãozinho, which is next door. The communities of Babilônia and Chapéu Mangueira, in Copacabana, took the test at the same time. The purpose of the action is to reinforce the protocol for vacating risk areas when sirens are triggered from the Rio Operations Center (COR), in cases of heavy storms. The deputy mayor of the south zone, Flávio Valle, said that this is a strategic event for the city hall and for the community. “We want to inform the population about the importance of activating the siren and also the procedure that people have to follow if the siren sounds”, he highlighted. “The message is to maintain credibility about the drive. This is a preventive system, so most of the time the siren is triggered, we won’t have an incident. But, as something can happen, we need the population to follow the steps to reach the support point. So that, in case of any incident, we do not have the loss of life”, he evaluated. Operation Whenever the activation protocols are reached (between 40 and 55 millimeters of rain in the period of one hour), the sirens sound, and the population must go to previously mapped support points. During the simulated exercise, teams activated sirens and SMS alerts to inform residents about the risks, directing the population to support points installed in safe areas of the community or surroundings to receive guidance from municipal teams and, as a consequence , preserve lives. Since 2011, 52 drills have been carried out across the city, 35 of them in the last two years. Rio has 162 sirens in 103 communities. In all, there are almost 200 registered support points. In 2021, the sirens were triggered on 12 occasions and, in 2022, a total of eight times due to heavy rains. In all, there have been 72 activations since 2011. The equipment is activated remotely from the COR. “With this system, we are managing to make the city more resilient and more preventive. It is important to emphasize that there have been 12 years of successful use of sirens, but the main factor is the participation and collaboration of residents. Without their engagement, we don’t have a resilient city”, reinforced the undersecretary of Municipal Civil Defense, Rodrigo Gonçalves.

Agência Brasil