Crisis Management | Disaster Recovery at Haycarb Palu Mitra

A Day Like No Other

It was a typical day in the factory, it was a pleasant sight with the warm wind and sun shining with blue skies. The whole day was heartwarming with things going to schedule and that being the fateful 28^th September 2018, a Friday where the afternoon prayers takes much importance for the Factory personnel as well as the village around with the mosque in the vicinity conducting the rituals and prayers for the afternoon with devout indulgence.

Whilst the day progressed into afternoon, probably it was around 3:45pm the ground beneath our feet started to tremble. The immediate reaction was that it was minor tremor that all were used to in the area, so no one took much notice. But it intensified in minutes then it was clear a massive earthquake was brewing. The feeling of helplessness and fear that encapsulated everyone is unforgettable. The ground shook violently, and the sound of things crashing around us was like something out of a movie.

The Moment of Crisis

The people could hardly move as the ground shook and it was like our feet was pasted to the ground and could hardly walk, or for that matter run to the closest safety. People screaming around us and the fear and devastation on the faces of all in this similar hopeless situation was evident and never experienced before. In this panic and chaos, all the skills taught in safety drills hardly came to mind or nothing was working and paralysis was striking.

In our Activated Carbon plants, the protocols and rules is that never to leave the activation kilns and steam boilers un-attended whilst in operation, and the irony is that a kiln in stable condition and operation takes up to 24-36 hours for stepwise shut down and temperature drop on a gradual basis to protect the structures from deformation due to thermal stresses; The critical question arose: ‘How do we vacate the plant?’ Swift communication with the operational heads in Colombo led to the decision to vacate the plant, prioritizing human lives.

The Aftermath

Minutes felt like hours the wait for the ground to stop shaking. As we all made our way outside of the factory the horrible scenes of the mingled and crumbled buildings, fallen chimneys, battered vehicles and crushed machinery. Everyone was aimlessly wandering, overwhelmed by shock and disbelief. Disaster had struck, and the long road to survival began. In the aftermath the community came together to support the cause and situation helping each other. Vehicle headlights became the only source of light, allowing mobile phones to be charged briefly until telecom towers fell.

Facing the Reality

As the reality of this devastation sunk in it was the togetherness of the community and volunteers where the spiritual and faith intact, paved the way for survival. The emotional trauma of losing loved ones, either dead or missing, was beyond human tolerance. People dug through rubble, hoping to find their loved ones alive, creating a ghastly picture of hope and despair.

Evacuation and Reflection

Living through this crisis was life changing for many, realizing the fragility of life and on the flip side, understanding the power of the community and togetherness and supporting each other at the time of need, no matter what walks of life they came from.

As days past and survived the earthquake/ Tsunami, arrangements were made from all working around the clock from our headquarters and all resources firing on all cylinders, took the wisely advises and a calculated risk of taking a 12-hour road journey to the central point larger city of Gorontalo and from there took a flight to more certain safe grounds to reach Manado where our sister facility was located. Looking back, we are grateful to have been spared physically, though psychological trauma lingered which took a while of counselling and psychological conditioning by professionals for our team to get back to strength. The support in every way rendered by our Senior management who were keeping in touch every step of the horrible experience making very prompt and difficult decisions to open doors to enable our safe pathway is commendable. The inclusivity here tells it’s own story that’s evident.

Rebuilding and Resilience

Things did not stop here, within 7-10 days the technical teams of engineers/ consultants travelled to the disaster zone and factory location and did the study and analysis and prepared damage reports. From their plans and targets were set up as to the repair resurrection and soon got moving full swing with arduous teams working tirelessly to complete the tasks. Within a period of 5 months, the factory was reconstructed to it’s earlier glory and accompanied by religious chanting re-commissioning event was held on 1^st March 2019, and a most welcome glee on everyone’s face with Haycarb Palu Mitra’s flag flying high.

Lessons Learnt and Moving Forward

Learning from lessons, disaster preparedness is now well entrenched and confidence levels are boosted for the teams to be engaged in their day to day work tasks. This in turn embeds in everyone’s minds the story of Resilience, Transformation and Adaptation!

“We salute and pay homage to all those who lost their lives in this very unfortunate natural disaster”