BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) Director Jonathan Tafiariki has appealed to public not to make prank calls to toll-free numbers.
Mr Tafiariki also called on public to take safety measures during this tropical cyclone season.
“We have toll-free numbers that people can use to seek information or report incidents. Most time people abuse these numbers and thus, I like to appeal to the public to respect those numbers as they are important for emergency purposes. So don’t make prank calls on these numbers.
“Those are emergency numbers that exist for us in the country. (Police 999, Fire station 988, Marine 977, or 955 to report disaster impact, weather 933, Ambulance 111, public health emergency and surveilling unit is 115.
“Those numbers are to get information or report information during emergencies and I want people to respect them,’’ he said.
He stated that it’s more important for the general public to re-look back at safety measures and measures that are required during this Tropical Cyclone season.
“We have heard and are aware of the country’s TC outlook, it has become elevated. This means that the risk of TC to form our waters becomes high,’’ said the Director.
He said that many festive activities will happen in November and December, and the public needs to be aware of the high chance of Tropical Cyclone formation this season.
“Not only that we also want to ensure our people check weather updates or information daily from the local news outlets, such as radio, newspapers or the SI Met website or official FB page. As we know TC is associated with heavy rains, which will also threaten the general public.
He also calls the public service, NGOs, to reach out to NDMO to update their contacts.
“Some of the contacts are not functioning or used -so it is vital to revisit NMD to update the contacts,’’ said Tafiariki.
He said that the NDM will continue to reach out to the organization to update but it is also important for those that already subscribe to reconfirm those contacts with NDMO.
