BRUSSELS – The casualties of typhoon “Pablo” (international name Bopha) in Mindanao could have been much higher had not concerned government agencies and non-government organizations undertaken disaster-preparedness measures on the ground before the storm slammed into the region, officials of the European Union’s (EU) humanitarian arm said yesterday.
Officials of the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection (ECHO) department also said the agency dispatched on Friday a team of experts from its office in Bangkok to Davao to make a rapid assessment of aid needed for the typhoon-hit communities.
Jenny Correia Nunes, Southeast Asia team leader of ECHO, said the experts are expected to finalize their report today and make specific recommendations.
“We’ve seen the preparations the government has made in Mindanao, (and these have) been extraordinary and saved a lot of lives, like bringing people to safety, to evacuation centers, and that decisions have been incredibly wise and effective,” Dominique Gryn, ECHO officer for the Philippines and Indonesia, said.
She said the agency has based its initial assessment on the death toll in typhoon “Washi” (Sendong) that hit Southern Philippines last year, killing 1,200 people. The death toll of Pablo has so far reached nearly 500.
“Of course we cannot underestimate the intensity of the damage and this is still an initial assessment, but we can already say that disaster awareness and preparedness has saved a lot of lives already…this is a positive thing we’re looking at,” Gryn said.
She said ECHO’s partners, including NGOs and local government units, had dispatched teams to vulnerable areas in Mindanao before Pablo slammed into the region, in anticipation of difficulty in accessing humanitarian aid.
Gryn said the ECHO team is expected to make a clear assessment “of what has happened and what is needed and what can ECHO do to provide meaningful assistance.”
Gryn said the agency can provide not just food but “smart assistance to allow people to start livelihood again like seeds and tools,” as reports said large swaths of farmland have been destroyed.