Disaster related situations VECO trains linemen, mediamen on survival

CEBU, Philippines - The media workers and linemen are always among the first responders during calamities like the massive earthquake in Bohol and the super typhoon Yolanda last year, and most of them, if not all, starved and suffered like the survivors.

In order for that not to happen again, the Visayan Electric Company, which also sent its own linemen to disaster-hit areas all over the country to help, initiated the survival skills training last Friday and Saturday in the upland barangay of Sirao, Cebu City.

“Nakakita man ko after sa earthquake and Yolanda, kamo mora’g naglisud unsaon pag-adapt, unsaon pag-survive in an environment nga way tubig, kuryente ug sakyanan. This is why we thought of this,” said Veco spokesperson Theresa Sederiosa.

There were 24 individuals, nine from the media and the rest were Veco linemen, most had no idea what they were on, who underwent the training.

The mediamen were only told to bring what they usually bring when covering a disaster aftermath.

They were grouped into five in which each group was provided with an open tent that they had to set up themselves using whatever materials they found on the ground, a kilo of rice, two eggs, a piece of carrot, two onions, two garlic bulbs and some seasoning. They were also given two condoms which they filled with water.

The five small camps were scattered in at the side of Sirao mountain overlooking the other mountains of Cebu amidst the freezing cold at night.

Louie Domingo, one of the trainors from Emergency Research Center, Inc (ERC), said the participants must undergo all the elements of nature so that they can learn to adapt when they come face-to-face with any of them, a biting cold at night or the heavy winds brought by a typhoon, in the future, and from there they will learn how to cope.

On Friday night, (this writer was among the participants), the temperature dropped really low that those who were staying in their hammocks were forced to join the people inside the tents for human heat.

In the middle of the night, as the coldness became unbearable, the organizers had to order for an immediate evacuation of the campers to the training room.

The following morning, the training personnel (there were three, two were licensed nurses: Jonathan Gene Palma and Razen Paras) took the vital signs of all the participants to ensure every one of them was still in normal condition.

Prior to the start of the training, the participants were asked to submit medical certificates.

At the start of the life in a “hostile environment” as the trainors would want everyone to feel, the groups’ first task was to make their own fire, as according to Domingo there may be matches or lights, but in case none of these are in sight, at least a mediaman or a lineman already knows how to create his own fire for him to be able to cook his own food.

The participants were also forced to cook their own food all throughout as the biscuits and other provisions they had were confiscated being part of the whole program.

No mobile phones were also allowed inside the camp for the participants to have a feel of what it is like to live in a disaster-hit area which normally has no network signals for days, said Domingo.

As for the comfort rooms, the organizers had allowed the groups to use Veco’s training building, but Sederiosa said the next time they will bring the participants to a location that is remote, where there is no free-flowing water and proper toilets.

“Next is advanced.  No water, no comfort rooms. It will be mas real. Kini controlled pa man mi,” she said.

Apart from the basics survival skills training, the participants were also taught basic defense skills, first-aid (including cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) and others. — (FREEMAN)