Sports in the time of calamity

This writer was fortunate to have been invited to serve as master of ceremonies at the world premiere of Discovery Channel’s new documentary “Haiyan: After the Megastorm” last week in Tacloban. The film, produced to remember the lessons and honor the heroes of typhoon Yolanda and commemorate its first anniversary, will be broadcast throughout Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and China on Nov. 8 at 8 p.m. It is hosted by Filipino-British actor and presenter Trey Farley, who spent two weeks in Tacloban seven months after the storm almost flattened the city.

“This documentary makes us remember the sorrow of losing many of our loved ones and the vast devastation that typhoon Haiyan brought to our shores. But it also shows the heroism in our people’s hearts, the hard guts it took to help us to get back on our feet again with the help of the rest of the Philippines and the international community,” says Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez, who himself almost drowned along with his family at the height of the storm. “Haiyan spotlights the need for cities like Tacloban to be more prepared for the new normal, as the strength of each city comes from the mindsets of its people, and that education and building social capital is absolutely crucial in order to incorporate resilience into all aspects of life.”

The event also showed the need not just for awareness, but a certain calm on the middle of all the chaos that accompanies storms of this magnitude. According to Romualdez, storms these massive will be more common now, regardless of what skeptics may believe. With the awareness also arises the need for preparedness. Just as doomsday preppers educate and train themselves for post-apocalyptic scenarios, residents of places which are susceptible to calamities must  learn the necessary skills in order to overcome nature’s fury. In some mountain areas in the US, for example, families are trained what to do in the event of a forest fire or need for evacuation.

But more than just having a go-bag and medical supplies packed and handy, or knowing where to rendezvous when separated from family, one must have training in certain kinds of sports and survival skills to be able to survive these events. Aside from having a certain level of physical fitness and the ability to walk long distances, knowing basic swimming techniques would also be very useful. 

If you knew how to swim, not only would you have the skill to overcome the initial surge of current, you would also not panic, having the confidence to keep yourself afloat. Also, you would not be foolish enough to directly swim against the flow of the flood, but instead, go along with it until it provides an opportunity for you to swim through it perpendicularly. That clarity of mind and knowledge of how to save your energy would be essential to survival in such a situation where the natural order of things has been disrupted by floodwaters. After all, you never know how long you would be immersed in the energy-sapping cold of the rushing waves.

The local governments of some flood-prone areas in Metro Manila, for example, have already taken it upon themselves to train their youth to swim for such an eventuality. Since over 20 major storms slash through the Philippines every year, being able to swim in low-lying areas such as those in eastern Metro Manila would be a very helpful skill. Some communities have deputized their youth as rescue workers assigned to help those stranded by floods swim their way out. The sense of responsibility also helps the assigned youth gain confidence and feel useful in times of calamity. In places like Marikina, Cainta and lower Antipolo, this skill could actually be life-saving.

In the aftermath of the storm, some community groups got together to create a healing center for the children who were traumatized by the unprecedented event. As a result of the sea’s fury, the children of the fishing community developed a reasonable fear that the waters would betray them again.  Carrying around this emotional burden would cripple their development, and make it difficult for them to function normally in an environment where reliance of the bounty of the sea was crucial. So what some concerned citizens did was create a program using yoga and other meditative techniques to restore the children’s trust in the vast seas. They added exercises like building a sailboat loaded with their hopes and dreams, and launching it out onto the placid waters. It was an effective way of reconciling the dependence on the ocean with an awareness that it could turn against them.

The Astrodome in Tacloban also provided the perfect evacuation center, as it was constructed in a manner that prevented floodwaters from entering it despite its seaside location. In cases of evacuation, being physically fit also makes one more resistant to illness, especially in crowded, confided spaces like evacuation centers or hospitals. Besides, being stronger and having even basic knowledge of self-defense may go a long way in protecting your family from looters, or even just helping diffuse tense situations. Keeping a clear head is vital during and immediately after a calamity.

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This writer received an e-mail from Dr. Sheryll Casuga, who was the subject of Saturday’s column on how sport psychology could be a big help in winning an Olympic gold medal. Casuga, who in 2011 also received an international award, the inaugural Atsushi Fujita Research Scholarship Award for her dissertation at the Asian South Pacific Association of Sport Psychology (ASPASP) in Taiwan, is currently in negotiations with the Philippine Amateur Track and Field Association (PATAFA) to help Filipino athletes. If all goes well, she will be returning to the Philippines in 2015, and may hopefully get the chance to help athletes from other sports, as well.