Dealing with disasters
Disasters and calamities strike at any time when you least expect it. Both happen to many people who while sleeping experience a landslide that swallow their house. Some people find themselves running to the second floor of their house because flash floods had invaded their neighborhood. This underscores the need to prepare for disasters, expected or unexpected, to secure our safety and our family’s well-being in times like these.
The inevitable question is how do you prepare for disasters and calamities. Whatever the program in every locality, the first requirement I believe is to be aware that disasters can and will, in an unfortunate time, happen to us. The denial of the possibility that disasters can ever happen to us and our loved ones is a great deterrent to engaging disaster preparedness, or at least delay our decisions to prepare for them. Disasters can include not just landslides and flash flooding, but fires, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and the more familiar ones to us, violent storms and typhoons.
Disasters and calamities affect a lot of people, although they can happen to us individually or to our families. An example of the latter is when we get involved, say, in vehicular collisions, or when our house burns. These small tragedies may be prevented simply by being careful and prudent in our actions. When we travel, for instance, we ensure that our vehicle is mechanically sound; and at home we do not leave lighted candles.
For disasters and calamities involving whole communities or localities, we need to (a) plan to avoid them, (b) as much as it can be done to prevent them from happening, (c) monitor them when and while they happen and (d) alleviate their destructive effects after the disaster. In squarely dealing with the problems related to disasters and calamities, we can thank our government for creating the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) to be the lead agency in disaster planning, prevention and recovery.
The NDRRMC, of course, does not do the work alone but coordinates with, and is assisted by, various other agencies of government. These agencies include the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, National Telecommunications Commission, Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Bureau of Fire Prevention (BFP) and even the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the local police.
The DILG ensures that local government units are equipped to deal with the problems associated with disaster prevention and calamities happening in their jurisdiction. The DENR prepares geo-hazard maps to help involved agencies navigate their way toward areas susceptible to extreme flooding and landslides and to look for damage to the ecosystem. The military helps in the search for and in evacuating disaster victims and in distributing disaster relief to difficult-to-access calamity areas.
The police help in securing law and order, particularly in preventing looting in the homes of the disaster victims who have been forced to leave. The BFP is involved because big fires at times occur in disaster areas when electrical cables and high-tension wires go awry, and cause sparks to fly in all directions. In my research, I did not come across the Department of Health as one of the agencies helping in disaster management and relief, but it should be part because disease is often prevalent in areas visited by disasters, and this requires medical supplies and attention.
Lastly there is one more entity which I am happy to learn contributes to the disaster preparedness framework in our country. It is the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation, a network of more than 70 private company members. Founded in 2009 as a mission of corporate social responsibility, it, among others, partners with government by helping increase awareness of the people about disasters and in helping victims rehabilitate themselves, a critical component of every true program dealing with disasters.
“We can thank our government for creating the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council to be the lead agency in disaster planning, prevention and recovery. “The inevitable question is how do you prepare for disasters and calamities.