Puri Coast — Missing Fisherman & Evacuation — SSB GPE Practice

SSB Group Planning Exercise (GPE) illustration — candidates studying a schematic map and writing a 10-minute group plan around a GTO table.

The map

Same idea as the printed sketch on the GTO table. Gold = pucca, dashed = kaccha, blue = water, pine clumps = village. Read kilometres before you divide the group.

BAY3 KM2 KM3 KM2 KMJJettySEALast GPS pingCLClinicSCPrimary schoolSHCyclone shelterNHNH pickupNHand-drawn practice sketch · not an official GTO map
Thick gold = pucca. Dashed brown = kaccha. Hatched double line = railway. Blue = water. Pine cluster = village. Letter in the circle is the map code.
  • J — Jetty
  • SEA — Last GPS ping
  • CL — Clinic
  • SC — Primary school
  • SH — Cyclone shelter
  • NH — NH pickup

The GTO’s narration

You are a group of persons as many as you are, volunteering at a cyclone-shelter drill near Puri when a real squall is ninety minutes out. You have one motor dinghy (fuel for 40 minutes), one pickup 4×4, six life-jackets at the jetty and a VHF at the jetty office. A fishing boat with two men left at 06:00; last VHF was at 13:10 near the GPS ping and their fuel is low. The village clinic has lost power; a dialysis patient is on a backup battery with about 40 minutes left and the generator fuel is at the cyclone shelter. Forty-two children are still in class at the primary school; the headmaster has not started evacuation. A district bus will wait at the NH pickup only until 16:20 for anyone going inland. Do not take the dinghy beyond fuel endurance. Sea state will worsen after 16:00; last launch 15:20. Now the time is 15:00 hrs. IMD landfall band is 16:30–17:00. As brave young men/lady what will you do.

10 minutes — write your plan on paper

Start the clock, look at the map, write priorities, who goes where, and clock times. Nothing is typed on this page.

10:00

Idle

A complete GPE solution (for comparison)

This is one workable plan, not the only plan. The GTO wants a split group, life before duty, and no invented resources. Compare after you write.

Priority of problems

  1. 1. Life — 42 children still in the school (SC).
  2. 2. Life — dialysis patient on dying battery at the clinic (CL).
  3. 3. Life — overdue fishing boat (SEA), within a 20-minute outbound only.
  4. 4. Duty — NH pickup bus till 16:20 (NH).

Distance and time (from the map)

  • Jetty → clinic: 3 km pucca ≈ 6 min pickup.
  • Clinic → school: 2 km kaccha — children walk ~25–30 min.
  • Clinic → shelter: 3 km pucca.
  • Shelter → NH: 2 km pucca.

What the group actually does

  1. Party A (3) to the school at 15:02 — start the walking column to the shelter immediately with a teacher. Do not wait for the pickup.
  2. Party B (2 + pickup) collect generator fuel from the shelter, take it to the clinic, restart power; shift the patient only if the battery still dies.
  3. Party C (skipper + 2, jackets, VHF) dinghy search 15:10–15:30 only. If the boat is not found, mark the ping and return — Coast Guard via VHF. No second trip.
  4. Party D (remaining) prepare the shelter and then move evacuees to NH by 16:10. Children do not miss the inland bus.

Close: School column starts first because 42 lives walk slowly. Dinghy has a hard stop at 15:30. NH bus is the last duty, not the first.

Other GPE maps