WE WILL never be disaster resilient unless we learn the lessons of past disasters. The recent Severe Tropical Storm “Paeng” was a wakeup call, actually one of several wakeup calls since Super Typhoon “Yolanda” struck in November nine years ago. Apparently, there’s more lessons to be learned.
For one, the rehabilitation process after every disaster (storm, earthquake, flooding, landslide, volcanic eruption) has been slow.
Frankly, while “Yolanda” brought massive devastation, it was not the first time we were responding and rehabilitating disaster-hit areas. And nine years on, by now the national and local governments should already have a system to ensure that rehabilitation and recovery programs are immediately carried out. Or do they?
Every single day that survivors remain in temporary shelters or deprived of support to get back to their own feet adds to their suffering. It certainly is hard to explain to disaster victims why the government has so much unused funds while they continue to suffer from the destruction.
The lessons of “Yolanda” should continuously remind everyone about the importance of disaster preparedness and risk reduction. Of course, we have noticed the improvements, especially in the issuance of advisories and early warnings. There are local governments that are able to enforce early evacuation.
But we need to do more. The prepositioning of goods should be more efficient. We need to conduct massive education and information campaign on disaster preparedness so that communities do not remain complacent.
We need to ensure that in rebuilding communities, we are not rebuilding the risks again. We must reduce the risks and not create new risks. If a community is prone to landslides, consult the geohazard map to see where relocation is possible; otherwise, we will continue to incur damages and rebuild again when typhoons occur. That is certainly not a mark of resilience.
In coastal communities, there should be mangrove reforestation because mangroves sequester carbon and are good buffers for storm surge and tsunami.
We need to adapt because stronger typhoons and other natural hazards are the new normal. “Yolanda” was just an example. “Paeng” was one of several reminders.
We should expect more of it, but more important is to be prepared for these extreme weather events.
