Today’s survey in Buhisan to determine CH’s evacuation plans
The profile tagging of families in Sitio Sandayong in Barangay Buhisan, Cebu City today will help City Hall determine who needs to be included in the preemptive evacuation
While waiting for the technical assessment of the cracks on a mountain in Sitio Sandayong, Barangay Buhisan, the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CCDRRMO) will conduct today a survey of residents in the area.
The move is in response to concerns raised by some residents and officials of Buhisan on the huge crack that runs down the mountainside in Sitio Sandayong since it was only a month ago when a massive landslide hit the City of Naga.
The crack is a fissure brought about by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake on Oct. 15, 2013.
Although it is the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) that has the technical know-how on geohazard areas, CCDRRMO chief Nagiel Bañacia said they took over the site inspection last Saturday because the former lacks manpower.
The MGB 7 has only six geologists doing fieldwork all over Central Visayas.
“MGB is attending to a lot of requests already, but there are only very few of them. We took over the inspection, but they will be the one to assess our findings since they’re the technical expert,” Bañacia said.
At 10 a.m. today, the barangay officials and CCDRRMO will conduct a profile tagging or survey of residents living near the mountain to determine how many need to be relocated.
An initial report from Buhisan showed that there are 30 houses below the slope where the crack is found.
At least 300 individuals stand to be affected by a preemptive evacuation.
Aside from profile tagging, Bañacia said they will also enhance Buhisan’s existing disaster mitigating measures by letting residents and barangay officials review their capability-building seminar.
A separate training on emergency response and mountain search and rescue will be conducted by the Bureau of Fire Protection.
“The barangay already has an existing disaster plan. Capability-building is most important, especially for places that were already identified as hazard areas. But more than that, residents of landslide-prone areas should keep their hands off nature,” said Bañacia.
In the case of Buhisan, Bañacia said residents in landslide-prone sitios already know that they have to evacuate to the barangay gym whenever there are public storm warnings or heavy downpour.