Lessons from #YolandaPH

CEBU, Philippines - Experience, they say, is the best teacher.

Super typhoon Yolanda may have brought destruction and grief to different parts of the Visayas but it cannot be denied that the typhoon also left a lot of lessons – lessons that are not just for the Visayas, but for the whole country.

With the Philippines being in the typhoon belt, experiencing an average of 20 weather disturbances per year according to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, and with climate change getting worse, Yolanda will certainly not be the last strong typhoon to enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility. 

There will be more and the lessons that Yolanda has taught will help the country cope.

The importance of weather reports

Typhoons, unlike earthquakes, can be detected even if these are still not within the country’s area of responsibility. The path of a typhoon can also be predicted, which makes preparedness and mitigation more solid.

The Yolanda experience has opened the eyes of everyone — from government officials and agencies, to private institutions and ordinary folks —  about the importance of weather reports and forecasts. People now pay more attention to the weather bulletins and warnings issued by PAGASA.

Last year, PAGASA played a crucial role in forewarning those living along the path of super typhoon Yolanda. Three days before the typhoon was supposed to make a landfall, the state weather bureau already issued its first weather bulletin.  A total of 12 severe weather bulletins were issued while Yolanda was still outside the PAR.

Hourly bulletins were issued via print, broadcast and social media as the super typhoon came closer to make a landfall.

The actual and forecast tracks were almost the same but the people were complacent then. Not anymore now.

Learning from the Yolanda experience, PAGASA will add a super typhoon category starting 2015. The new set of tropical cyclone classifications according to intensity will soon include tropical depression, tropical storm, typhoon, and super typhoon.

Weather disturbances with speed ranging from 118 to 220 kilometers per hour will be called typhoons while those with maximum sustained winds of 220 kilometers per hour and above will now be called super typhoons.

Prior to this change, all weather disturbances with 118 kilometers per hour and above were considered typhoons.

According to authorities, the more recent development in weather forecasting “aims to emphasize the intensity of a tropical cyclone and the threat of its impacts.”

Before Yolanda, Filipinos do not know what a storm surge was.

While authorities have mentioned this as Yolanda was approaching the country, it was not explained to the public.

As a result, the people of Eastern Visayas were caught off-guard when sea water rose up to 15 feet and washed away properties and lives.

Learning the hard way, Filipinos now know that a storm surge is the abnormal rise of water generated by a storm over and above the predicted astronomical tides.

From Yolanda to date, authorities have been devising systems to improve warning tools to especially alert coastal communities.

With this, Project NOAH (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards), still under DOST, will be coming up with storm surge warnings before the year ends, according to Project NOAH executive director Mahar Lagmay during the Climate Change Consciousness Week last year.

The storm surge warning will be done through the Coastal Hazards and Storm Surge Assessment and Mitigation (CHASSAM), a major component of Project NOAH.

There are also local government units who took it upon themselves to improve their capabilities in monitoring the weather.

Ormoc City Councilor Pedro Ebcas said the City Council has just approved a resolution authorizing Mayor Edward Codilla to enter into a memorandum of agreement with PAGASA and the Department of Science and Technology to give weather forecasts for the entire city.

The ceremonial signing of the MOA is set either on November 11 or 12, he said.

In Cebu City, City Councilor David Tumulak said that Yolanda has led the city to come up with a command center to better monitor weather disturbances.

He added that the information and education campaign on disaster preparedness has been intensified in the barangay level and the city is even eyeing to go to the sitio level.

Prepared for disasters

The national government, down to the local government units have Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils. While these councils have been functioning before Yolanda, the functions of these have been further strengthened after the super typhoon.

Councilor Tumulak said the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council anticipated that there will be a strong typhoon coming a week before Yolanda entered the PAR.

Tumulak, who heads the CCDRRMC, said that the office planned for worst case scenarios immediately.

“Gibombahan gani ko sa radio kay nagpa-panic buying daw ko,” he recalled.

Days before Yolanda hit land, many residents of Cebu City and its neighboring cities went into panic buying after the repeated warnings of the CCDRRMC.

Tumulak said that he was really thinking that the storm would hit Cebu City, adding that barangays were informed and advised to take precautionary measures.

“Nakapangandam ta. Nagpahibawo nata sa mga barangays. Naay mga na uproot lang nga kahoy, ug minor landslides pero zero casualty ta,” he said.

Ormoc City Councilor Pedro Ebcas, meanwhile, said the city government is now focused on capacity building and training in preparation for future disasters.

“Kay siyempre ang mga tawo nga naa sa kalamidad, asa man dangop? Ari man g’yud sa LGU. So that’s one lesson learned,” he said.

Baltazar Tribunalo Jr., head of the Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office said typhoons like Yolanda is now the “new normal.”

To prepare the local government units for calamities that might even be more destructive than Yolanda, the PDRRMO is conducting capability trainings for the local DRRMs in different areas in the province.

Tribunalo said LGUs have become proactive since after Yolanda.

The Cebu Provincial Capitol, in its rehabilitation plan, cited that there is a need for alternative failsafe systems and backup power systems since communication is a “weak link” during a calamity.

The province also urged families and communities to do their own preparedness planning, including the preparation of supplies for five to seven days. 

“Di gyud ta mokompiyansa. Whether we like it or not, there will be more Yolandas, stronger Yolandas. Be ready for that,” Tribunalo said.

Ciriaco Tolibao II of the Ormoc City DRRM said the city has also improved its communication systems, in anticipation of calamities.

“For three days (after Yolanda), we did not have any communication with the outside world. Diha namo nakita nga vital ang communication, so we set up a tower installed with radio repeaters worth P1 million,” said Tolibao.

Cebu City’s Tumulak stressed that communication is very important before, during, and after a disaster.

“We need to invest gyud og alternative ways to communicate sa barangays nga dili ma-fail like sa radio nato karon,” he said.

Mayor Alfred Romualdez said that before a calamity strikes, the entire government and civilian population should all be prepared. He added that the local government cannot do it alone.

“Now if everybody is doing their part the way they should, then we will be better prepared. Everyone has to play a role,” he said.

Mayor Remedios Petilla of Palo said the public should follow the instructions of the local government unit, especially about evacuations.

She cited that they implemented forced evacuation particularly on the residents in coastal barangays, days before Yolanda but there were still families who did not leave their houses.

“If the municipality says evacuate. Everybody should evacuate. We have to be serious in preparing for times like these,” she said.

For Shaina Rose Gulfan of Barangay Poblacion in Daanbantayan town, Yolanda was a wake-up call.

Gulfan shared to The FREEMAN that her family thought then that the typhoon was not that strong, in fact, she said that her family did not heed the call of barangay personnel to eva-cuate because her father believed that they were all safe in their house.

At 6 a.m. on November 8, the Gulfan family decided to transfer in their concrete store at the Daanbantayan market.

“Mura gyud og hubog nga nanghasi ang hangin. Ang among tinda nga napalid, gipangkawat pa gyud,” Gulfan added. The family returned to their house after the storm only to find out that it had already been completely destroyed.

“Kompiyansa ra gyud mi ato. Nagtuo ra mi nga pareha ra kakusog sa milabay nga mga bagyo,” she said. “Kinahanglan gyud mangandam ug motuo gyud kung pabalhinon man gani,” she said.

Responders have also learned a lot from the Yolanda experience.

Philippine Red Cross-Cebu Chapter Shelter Officer Alejandro Edillor III said that there must be proper coordination between local government units, non-government agencies, and the people. Edillor said that this would help avoid the duplication of benefits or projects given to the affected individuals.

“People need to be prepared because that is the reason why the community becomes vulnerable because they don’t know what to do when a cala-mity strikes,” he added.

Department of Agriculture-Regional Field Office Executive Director Angel Enriquez also said that there must always be a unified action between the national and local government. This way, recovery and rehabilitation will be swift.

For the Department of Public Works and Highways-7, which conducted clearing ope-rations during the aftermath of Yolanda, making sure that equipment  are available and serviceable at any time, especially during calamities, is a must.

DPWH-7 regional director Ador Canlas said funds should also be made available for response efforts during emergency situation.

When Yolanda struck last year, even employees and members of disaster response team also became victims and expected responses were not carried out immediately.

DPWH suggested that neighboring “unaffected” offices will be the ones who will respond in times of calamities.

Build back better

While rebuilding the infrastructure that Yolanda destroyed, local government units have also learned to practice the Build Back Better principle.

The concept of build back better, which was promoted by former United Nations Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery Bill Clinton during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami response, means building infrastructure that is resilient to calamities.

“For example, this City Hall building is  really strong. But considering that we have wide windows, diha man ‘to nag-start sa mga windows nga nag-give way due to strong winds, that’s why other portions of the roof were blown off. So i-apply na nato ang BBB principle in rehabilitating government buildings,” Councilor Ebcas of Ormoc said.

Santa Fe, Cebu Mayor Jose Esgana said it is important for local government units to construct sturdy evacuation centers, too, so that constituents who need to be evacuated will have a safe refuge in times of disaster.

Zero casualty in San Francisco, Camotes

In terms of disaster preparedness, the town of San Francisco in Camotes Island is a model.

The town, which has a total of land area of 10.5 hectares and is composed of 15 barangays, recorded zero casualty during the wake of Yolanda.

Former San Francisco mayor Alfredo Arquillano credited the town’s zero casualty rate to its typhoon drills and the “purok” system, a system he initiated wherein the residents are divi-ded into groups, puroks, which is smaller than the barangay.

“Thank God, our hard work in educating our people, conducting regular drills paid off. In spite of the damaged houses, we are happy to have achieved zero death,” Arquillano, a disaster risk reduction champion said.

Under the term of Arquillano as mayor, San Francisco bagged the prestigious 2011 United Nations Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva because of the “purok system.” — with Michael Vencynth H. Braga and Jean Marvette A. Demecillo/QSB