EDITORIAL — Need to ‘do more’

The nation marked the 11th anniversary of the onslaught of Super Typhoon Yolanda just days after observing a Day of National Mourning on Nov. 4, with flags flown at half-mast for the 145 confirmed deaths from Severe Tropical Storm Kristine.

With peak winds of 315 kilometers per hour, Yolanda was a tropical cyclone so powerful it prompted weather scientists to add a higher wind warning signal, No. 5, to the alert system in the Philippines. It spawned storm surges up to six meters high, flattening much of Eastern Visayas with the force of a tsunami. Of over 6,350 confirmed fatalities, more than 5,900 were in Tacloban City.

In the aftermath of Yolanda, there was a lot of talk about building back better, of learning lessons and improving disaster preparedness. And yet here we are, 11 years after Yolanda made landfall on Nov. 8, 2013 in Guiuan, Eastern Samar, wondering why a severe tropical storm killed at least 145 people from mudslides and cataclysmic floods that took a long time to subside.

Kristine unleashed the worst death and destruction last October in the Bicol Region and Batangas. What happened to the warning systems, the evacuation protocols and disaster preparedness, the flood control?

President Marcos admitted that the government’s response to Kristine was “never enough,” while wishing that they “could do more.” Doing more will have to be speeded up, as climate change triggers extreme weather disturbances all over the planet. Valencia in Spain is mourning the loss of at least 219 dead and 93 missing as of yesterday due to unusually heavy rainfall that spawned catastrophic flash floods not seen in decades that hit southern and eastern Spain late last month.

Such heavy rainfall and torrential flooding, however, are not regular occurrences in Spain, and the lack of preparedness is not entirely surprising. The Philippines, on the other hand, serves as a welcome mat for tropical cyclones from the Pacific Ocean, and is visited annually by an average of 20 cyclones of up to super typhoon strength. This is apart from the heavy rainfall induced during monsoon season, which could turn even a tropical storm like Ondoy into a disturbance that spawns devastating floods.

The flooding from Ondoy paralyzed Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon way back in September 2009. Yet similar flooding still hit parts of Metro Manila when Typhoon Carina struck last July.

All studies point to the Philippines as one of the countries at highest risk to the devastating impact of climate change. Certainly, the country needs to “do more” by way of disaster preparedness and mitigation.