Nothing like being prepared

Kudos to the MMDA, with chairman Francis Tolentino at the helm, together with Philvolcs, under director Renato Solidum, for a well-organized and excellent implementation of the metro-wide Shake Drill 2015.

I watched it at home, switching channels every now and then and found the whole exercise very fruitful and helpful. I hope everyone who participated or at least those who couldn’t but watched the whole exercise on television, will remember the do’s and don’ts of the drill, though this is better said than done.

For myself, something about the way the government has been hammering on the imminent dangers of the Big One got me worried.  It has been given so much space on print and the airwaves that it got me thinking:  they must know something we don’t, or at least it must be a real and present danger that the citizenry is repeatedly warned.

Well, the well-coordinated exercise had Metro Manila divided into sections. The south quadrant simulated the collapse of the Skyway and the scenario had debris-clearing, cars pinned down and/or burning, and rescuers airlifting victims by helicopter to the Villamor hospital. At the end of the drill, the participants and onlookers gave a big round of applause to the rescue team.

The east quadrant, which covers Marikina and Pasig simulated the collapse of the Marikina bridge and showed rescuers rappelling from the bridge, while another team cut a triangle through a “collaped house” to rescue the occupants.

In the west quadrant, there was a rescue and fire drill simulation and a systematic evacuation of victims, while in the north quadrant, they had about a thousand evacuees attended to.

Even at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the drill was underway at 10:30 a.m. participated in by the airport employees, while in Ilocos Norte, they held their own drill participated in by 3,000 students. 

A basic rule I saw on TV had everyone covering their heads for protection.  I have repeatedly warned my family and office staff about the basic safety rules in case of an earthquake and have gone as far as providing everyone with a hard hat on every desk and fire extinguishers in every corner. 

Listening intently to the resource persons interviewed on TV, one cannot help but shudder at the possible scenarios when the Big One comes. Engr. Carlo Arcilla, director of the National Institute of Geological Sciences at the University of the Philippines certainly knows whereof he speaks, and he did not bother with difficult-to-understand scientific findings, but went right down to basics for the ordinary folks.  He cited the ‘Hyatt incident’ that happened in July 1991 in Baguio where the higher floors toppled sideways.  During that earthquake, the Japanese citizens who were there, by instinct, went up the higher floors while the Filipinos rushed downstairs.  The Japanese people have been drilled on end on how to react to earthquakes, while in the Philipppines, the Shake Drill 2015 was the first ever major drill held in the country and fully financed by the national government.

Dir. Arcilla added, should you find yourself in a high rise building and the earthquake comes, don’t bother to go down or move out.  Hopefully, the engineers and contractors who built the tall edifice were true to their profession and did not cut corners to save on building costs.  If the structural code was followed, chances are there will be no severe damages.  And this is true likewise for persons with disabilities and the elderly—Dir. Arcilla declares, “Stay where you are and duck under a heavy table instead of running out of the building where more dangers await you.”

What can we businessmen do apart from having our staff participate in these drills?  There is still quite a lot to think about.  Is your building’s or office’s insurance covered by Acts of God? Is there an easy way out, the emergency exit unhampered by desks, etc? Are there designated marshals among the staff to shepherd the employees out of harm’s way? Are the fire extinguishers accessible? Is there a transistor available to keep the communication lines open when electricity is cut off so you can listen to Phivolcs or the national disaster coordinating agency advice?

Something we have not paid much attention to is the effect of a big earthquake on our dams.  The Angat Dam is vulnerable to the Marikina fault line, though the concerned government agency is confident that if it happens, the dam may hold. The main dike and drainage system though have to be re-checked as these need watching. The dam is 47 years old and as of latest check, it was given a conditionally poor rating, which has P-noy himself worried.

The worst scenario for the Angat Dam is unprecedented floods that could rise up 10-30 meters high or the equivalent of 10 floors in parts of Bulacan, and up to 3-5 meters high in Pampanga.  Experts say Angat Dam’s foundation needs to be retrofitted now.

The West Valley Fault Line can also threaten the Bustos Dam whose gate needs a change of rubber coating badly, according to experts, but this could easily cost hundreds of millions to repair.

The Ipo Dam, on the other hand, has been threatened by widespread illegal logging at its watershed so that the soil around the dam has huge problems of siltation and erosion.

God forbid that any of these dams (or all of them?) be damaged when the Big One comes.  Not only will we have to contend with the huge floods when the dam bursts (and believe me, there will not be enough time for people in the area to react when the dam bursts and there is a violent outpouring of water) the next problem is water shortage.  Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink!

In the face of all these, I agree that those informed and aware are the better-equipped ones. After all the preparation and with the proper mind set, we put ourselves in God’s hands and pray fervently for deliverance.

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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