‘The systems failed’: Noy: What else could I have done?

TACLOBAN , Philippines   â€“ The government’s disaster response systems failed when emergency staff became victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda and were unable to work, President Aquino said yesterday.

Visiting this city that was worst hit by the typhoon and its storm surge, the President said a backup system may be needed for better response to future natural disasters.

In another interview in Alangalang, Leyte, the President also took umbrage at those who have criticized the government’s response to Yolanda and its aftermath.

“I would ask these critics, what else could I have done, given the resources we have, and given the magnitude of the problem?” Aquino said.

In this city, reporters asked him if he was pleased with the pace of rescue efforts and if he was satisfied that enough was being done quickly.

He replied: “This was unique. We are visited by about 20 typhoons a year. This time around the systems failed.”

Why did the systems fail?

Aquino said response staff, including those from Local Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (LDRRMC) and police, were not able to report for duty following the storm.

“The destructive force of this typhoon was of such a magnitude that even the personnel involved in these LDRRMCs were themselves victims. For example, the police force in Tacloban City numbers 290 and only 20 were able to report for work,” he said. “We had a breakdown in power, we had a breakdown in communications, we had a breakdown in practically everything.”

Aquino said half of emergency relief goods that were in storage prior to Yolanda were contaminated by the waves.

He said there was a “perfect set of factors” that made responding to a disaster especially difficult.

“So am I satisfied with the pace? I’m never satisfied when it comes to addressing the needs of our people. Whatever is achieved now I always try to increase the efficiencies of all systems of government,” he said. “I think most of our people realize this was, in a sense, a typhoon of such magnitude and such strength that it really overwhelmed the systems.”

Coastal mapping for storm surge

The President said there may be a need to put backup systems in place so that teams from outside disaster areas are ready to respond in the event that local teams are unable to report for duty.

He said mapping of danger areas along the country’s 36,000-kilometer coastline needs to be done to better understand the risk of storm surges.

The President spoke to reporters after a tour of the Australian Medical Aid field hospital in Tacloban City yesterday afternoon and said he would be commissioning studies of the storm-prone coastline.

“We have a 36,000-kilometer coastline and we have to map out storm surge danger areas,” Aquino said. “New studies on all the storm surge areas have to be completed.”

Coastal areas in Leyte, Samar and the Visayas were not prepared for the ferocious waves that accompanied Yolanda on Nov. 8. People compared the storm surge to a tsunami as, according to witnesses, the water retreated from land before rushing back to shore.

The President called on international expertise to help with the assessment so that the process could be completed quickly and people would be more aware of the risks of future storms.

“Of course, more people working at the problem will give us the answers quicker. So at the end of the day we’re hoping to draw on the expertise of everybody willing to help us, augment the resources that we do have and get our people situated in a better situation at the quickest possible time.”

He added that greater effort needed to be made to educate people about storm surges to prevent being caught unaware again.

“When we started out people think of typhoons only in terms of the wind. Then, of course, after the Fukushima incident they started understanding tsunamis. The next step is understanding storm surges and unfortunately, the last one that struck this area was in 1984 so a lot of people don’t have memory of that.

“The next level will be more indoctrination on storm surges.”