By Ferdie L. Bravo
Preemptive safety measures ensured that casualties and damages in the recent super typhoon that wrecked havoc in the Philippines were reduced to minimal. Is this the result of lessons learned from the terrible disaster caused by Yolanda last year, or the government’s logistics have improved by leaps and bounds by properly equipping its support agencies in its no-nonsense drive to give its best services to the citizenry?
While the scorching summer heat blazes Israel, worsened by the on-going conflict with its perennial enemy, Hamas and the Palestinians, as rocket attacks from the hostile territories rain into the Holy Land, the Philippines experiences a totally different condition as the rainy season unfolded a couple of months ago. Year in and year out, they face these seemingly perpetual problems with great concern and determination.
Days before it hit land, many of our fellow kababayans in Israel and in other parts of the world have been praying to spare our nation from more griefs and troubles, and with abated breath feared the worst case scenario happening again in our homeland as the super typhoon approaches. With Yolanda’s poignant memory still lingering in our minds, the impending natural misfortune caused doubts and trepidation amongst many of us, as the mass felt cautious and apprehensive about the ability and preparedness of our government to handle the inevitable aftermath.
But to the surprise of many, typhoon ‘Glenda’ caused not too much of a stir unlike major typhoons that came to devastate our country previously. The total damage pales in comparison to previous ones maybe due to many factors which the government have been able to implement. We may not be able to limit the score of fatalities to zero, or minimize the cost of destruction to the thousands, but at least we were able to succeed in limiting the damage where past governments failed to achieve.
The path of destruction caused by super typhoon ‘Glenda’ (international codename Rammasun) revealed the ‘usual’ extents of devastation as electric poles got toppled, house and building roofs dismantled, ancient trees uprooted or destroyed, debris strewn across streets and major thoroughfares, and damages to crops and livelihood in the millions. Electricity was shut down for large areas of the affected areas, fearing resumption will take weeks if not months as repairs took place immediately after the storm left the country.
“We have to give credit to our people and to [the] local government[s] because they reacted well to the typhoon warnings,” said National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) Executive Director Alexander Pama.
The Philippines, considered as one of the most natural disaster-prone countries in the world, is hit by about 20 major storms a year, many of them deadly. The Southeast Asian archipelago is often the first major landmass to be struck after storms build above the warm Pacific Ocean waters.
PH learning lessons of storms past: NOAH chief
The Philippine government has made progress in terms of disaster preparedness and mitigation, which could have kept the number of deaths in the recent typhoon to a minimum, the director of Project NOAH said Wednesday.
“We’re getting more and more progress. We’re still not out of the woods because typhoon Glenda is still in Zambales. But based on initial reports, it looks like we’re getting a good score,” Director Mahar Lagmay said in an ANC interview in reviewing the extent of destruction with the tail of the typhoon estimated in the province of Zambales.
In November super typhoon Yolanda (international codename Haiyan) unleashed seven-meter (23-foot) high storm surges that devastated Samar and neighboring Leyte island, killing more than 6,000 people in one of the nation’s worst natural disasters.
In terms of strength, Typhoon Glenda has been compared to another typhoon, Milenyo, that killed 200 people in 2006, while the former ‘only’ killed 38 (as of this writing).
Lagmay gave credit to the different strategies introduced within that 8-year difference.
“[Glenda] was no ordinary storm, but all the disaster mitigation plans were well worth it,” he said. He said the government has since updated hazard maps and the culture of preparedness is slowly settling.
Reporting from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) is also on par, he added.
He cited the case of Camotes Island, which took ten years to create a culture of preparedness.
“[Mayor Aly Arquillano] is a good leader who taught the people about safety. The approach was to get people to take the initiative in terms of solving disaster problems. It was a bottom-up approach,” the NOAH director added.
He also commended the efforts of NDRRMC chief Alexander Pama for managing the situation very well.
He said Pama utilized volunteers to help out in the government efforts. “Disaster preparedness requires efforts of everybody and encouraging private, religious, NGOs, everybody to work as one.”
Lagmay said the culture of preparedness is no small task “but we have to start somewhere.”
Thousands of travellers were stranded as airlines cancelled scheduled flights; the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) ordered all provincial bus operators with ferry routes on the path of Glenda to cease dispatching vehicles to avoid unwanted accidents or harm to passengers. More so, the PNP Director General Alan Purisima activated the National Headquarters’ Disaster Incident Management Task Group to coordinate all disaster response operations in areas affected by Glenda.
Citizens living in low-lying areas and those along the coasts were advised to move to shelters and evacuation centers for fear of floods and storm surges that may be initiated by the typhoon’s strong winds and heavy rainfall. Many heeded the call while there are still those hard-headed individuals who dismissed the advisory fearing thieves will take advantage of the situation by sneaking into their houses to steal their valuables.
Another positive initiative the government issued was the announcement of price increase freeze for two months on areas declared under state of calamity. Basic commodities such as rice, sugar, coffee, noodles, LPG and so on were to be kept at a stable rate so as to alleviate the sufferings of those badly affected.
The government’s swift action to the looming threat days before it made landfall and the people’s positive response and cooperation maybe due to the lesson of Yolanda contributed to the nominal casualties and limited the damage to the least, compared to previous major typhoons that visited the country years ago.
As the Filipino people anticipates more super storms coming in the months ahead, it may well be observed that even though natural calamities constantly happen in our beloved nation, even if disasters of unimaginable proportion destroy lives, dwellings, crops and infrastrutures, even if nature’s wrath pummels us helplessly into submission, there will never be any single tragedy or catastrophic instance, be it manmade or natural, that will ever shake the spirit of the most indomitable humans in the world, the Filipinos.
May God bless our country, the Philippines, and its people.