Out comes the morning sun

This week was off to a bad start.

Well, anyone may not give up their hopes for better, brighter days that easy, but you see, when you have a super typhoon at hand that packs maximum sustained winds of over 175 km/h, and believed to be stronger than Sendong (and heaven knows how Sendong ransacked the supposedly merry Christmas of the people of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan cities last year), who does not shiver?

Shiver or not shiver, however, what’s important is everything is now water under the bridge for Typhoon Pablo. The post-disaster statistics shows nearly 300 people dead, about 400 injured, some 300 missing, and thousands of Filipino families in affected areas in Mindanao yet displaced by what can be the last major weather disturbance before this year takes exit.

But what’s heartening to point out is that the state weather bureau, local government executives and the tri- and social media have done what they were supposed to, and have done it with satisfactory remarks.

The Pagasa was relentless in its up-to-date release of public weather forecasts over the whole period Pablo scaled its wrath on both water and land. Small and medium fishing vessels were prevented from going to the open seas.

Updates on Pablo’s coming reverberated everywhere in every form—from TV to radio to newspapers to Twitter and Facebook to word of mouth.

In the city and the province, Mayor Mike Rama and Gov. Gwen Garcia were both swift to pronounce suspension of classes on all levels among public and private schools, colleges and universities within their jurisdictions. This was not only a great decision that slid students away from potential hazards, it also gave local folks time to prepare for the storm.

So it turned out that even before Pablo could knock on Cebuanos’ doors, all preparatory parameters have already been in place, such that there wouldn’t be a compelling reason to blame personalities and institutions if in any case casualties had to arise.

All of a sudden, Pablo changed course. Cebu City experienced no more than ordinary rain showers and erratic yet non-lasting winds. It could be that Cebuanos prayed too hard to Sr. Sto. Niño and San Pedro Calungsod that night, that for some reason and for the nth time, Cebu was once again spared from the possible harm of a typhoon, a super typhoon.

Because of this twist of events, our disaster preparedness could not be sufficiently gauged. Nonetheless, what happened reflects a kind of preparedness that must be adopted at all times during calamities. You have Pagasa ruling out the forecasts in the best way they could. And then you have government officials quickly taking ownership on the safety of their people, and the media playing their role as information channels. Finally, you have a populace that listens to announcements from authorities, forever keeping the attitude of vigilance.

As I see it, our disaster preparedness measures and the way people are responding to them have simply gone one bar higher. Specifically for us Cebuanos, it seems that we have matured in the way we deal with calamities or at least in the way we prepare for them.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not calling for disaster or what. I am only saying that it’s good to notice our people finally seeing the weight of disaster-education. Educating people on disaster preparedness coupled with government’s initiative truly make the system to be in sync, and a system that is in sync works out well and thus yields good results.

For now, our brothers down in Mindanao will again try to prove the Filipino’s enduring trait of resilience. And for us who made it through, may we never disregard the lessons we learned from our Pablo experience.

The week might have started a bit off but at least it ends with a morning sun brilliantly conquering the skies back again.