EDITORIAL - Newer responses needed for stronger storms

With just a few days to go before the entire nation remembers how, on November 8, 2013, Yolanda, the world's most powerful typhoon on record, destroyed many parts of the Visayas, Paeng, another typhoon of similar category mercifully skirted our country to veer off almost harmlessly northeastward. God knows we cannot afford to be hit by a similarly destructive typhoon just a year after Yolanda.

And that brings to the fore the concern of many about just exactly how prepared is the Philippines to deal with typhoons that are increasingly getting stronger and more destructive. We need to have the answers ready because, judging by what happened during Yolanda, the Philippines was truly caught unprepared, not in the sense that we did not know what hit us, but in the sense that we did not expect it would be that hard.

The best example of how we had expected to be hit but did not expect to be hit that hard was the decision of DILG secretary Mar Roxas to be in Tacloban to wait out the storm and see what happens and see how he can help. Roxas may have been genuinely motivated to do good. But with his presidential ambition being no secret, it was also seen a strategy to be where the action was and earn pogi points.

Alas, neither he nor anyone else really appreciated what was going to happen. And so, when Yolanda struck and crippled Tacloban, there was absolutely nothing that Roxas could do. Everybody was a victim, just as he was himself. It was therefore a case of being prepared but not being prepared enough. Yolanda, thus, should become the benchmark for all future responses to future storms.

Luckily, Paeng did not put us to the test because, contrary to the brave pronouncements of some in government that we are better prepared this time, the sad truth is that we most certainly are not. All that we have heard so far are brave words and motherhood statements. But on the ground, there is no feeling of confidence about our ability to respond.

Anything that veers away from general statements provides little or no details, giving rise to suspicions that, talk aside, we are still rooted to the same responses that Yolanda has clearly demonstrated would no longer work in these times of worsening storms. With the circumstances changed, we clearly need more practical but at the same time more imaginative responses at the ready.

For example, before Yolanda, typical responses focused on relief and rescue. All of these were blown or swept away. New ones could not move in because of all the debris. With storms getting more powerful, the first wave should be clearing crews followed by rescue and medical units. People can do without food or water for a day or two. It is getting through to ground zero that is most important. Without access, everything else fails.