La Union folk taught disaster response

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union — Summer may not be over yet but, like the fabled ant which refuses to idly bask in the sunshine, one civic club here is busy teaching village folk how to save lives and resources should the heavy rains come.

Learning from the aftermath of typhoon "Feria" last year — which left more than 800,000 people homeless, 121 people dead and over P1 billion worth of property destroyed in the Ilocos region alone — the Rotary Club of San Fernando, La Union Inc. has launched a project that aims to improve the local folk’s capability to respond to emergencies at the barangay level.

"Our country is visited by an average of 20 typhoons each year and La Union is very susceptible because most of its towns are located along the coast," Richard Dy, Rotary Club president and project chairman, said.

The comprehensive community-based disaster management project was carried out in the four most disaster-prone towns of La Union — Luna and Bangar on the northern tip and Tubao and Rosario on the southern tip.