Earth-shaking warnings

First, of all, may I request readers to pray for the people of Myanmar and Thailand who have just experienced a destructive magnitude 7.7 earthquake last week.

The death toll in Myanmar yesterday was already at 1,000-plus, not including Thailand. We can only imagine how much fear, pain and suffering these people and nations will go through in the coming months.

After watching several of the videos taken during the earthquake in Myanmar and Thailand, the subsequent thought for me was – what if it happened in Metro Manila or some other urbanized place such as Cebu, Davao, Baguio or Tagaytay? How much damage and how many dead will a similar earthquake leave us?

Before you say this is a “typical knee jerk reaction,” may I humbly and sincerely invite you to go through your own home, office, garage or neighborhood, and look for the danger signs in the event of an earthquake.

Consider large glass panels breaking like grenade shrapnel. Powerlines by your driveway or garden that are so tight they could snap in a sway. The combination of burst pipes and live wires is no fun. Overhangs or plaster cast designs and heavy planters that could break and fall on cars and people.

If you can’t run, where can you hide? Hiding under a plywood7.3 desk or folding table is no match to a concrete slab from above. A raised heavy duty steel bed or 6 x 6 wood-framed bed could give you enough protection from being crushed or pinned by concrete from above.

Forty-eight years after the fact, I still remember the magnitude earthquake of 1968 that caused the collapse of the six-story Ruby Tower in Manila. I was nowhere near it, but in our ancestral home in UP Village, Quezon City, cars were being dribbled in the garage.

My Tito Buboy came out of the house pale and frightened after a tall cabinet directly in front of his bed nearly toppled over him while he was reading a book in bed.

Funny enough I can remember some of the places where I was when earthquakes struck: Tagaytay City while giving a lecture, Magallanes Village watching the power lines sway like a skipping rope. The rest, I slept through or failed to notice.

By God’s grace, I was always somewhere low and somewhere safe during the earthquakes in my life. I did not immediately hear about it when the 7.7 tremor hit Myanmar and Thailand as I was too preoccupied fixing cables for our internet and WiFi.

But later that afternoon, my wife Karen and I walked back from BGC to Barrio Kapitolyo. As we crossed the Lawton-Sta. Monica bridge, I pointed out several seven-story, unplastered hollow block “houses” along Barangay Pineda that I feared would crumble in a serious earthquake.

To the naked eye, there were not enough reinforcement bars on the exposed posts to be secure against a 7.7 quake. Even worse is that the posts were not big enough for a seven-story concrete structure, not to mention future load.

My wife, on the other hand, wondered how deep and how wide could the foundations of those “buildings” be, because without the correct foundation, a collapse or major lean is almost a given. Just about every earthquake coverage features houses and buildings leaning to one side.

In a time when real estate is so expensive, the accepted solution is to build upwards. But I’ve discovered that in residential or non-skyscraper structures, some people cheat, since foundations are buried. This is quite common especially for structures over 30 years old.

The question is, how safe are you within your structure as well as from those around you? With the popularity of condominiums today, people forget to study and add in risks and potential challenges.

After a big earthquake, everybody talks about fault lines and drop offs. In Pasig, there was an effort to mark the fault line and potential danger but when a major developer sets their sights on the area, clearances and permits parted the sea of opposition.

Aside from building collapse, one common fear abroad is for gas lines breaking and causing fires and explosions. Locally, I’ve heard of an upscale town house development with two reported cases of gas leaks.

One observation I have about the building under construction in Bangkok that totally collapsed is that it was like a matchstick structure gone too high too soon. I am reminded of the Manila Film Center where floors collapsed on floors because the concrete had not fully cured.

I don’t know if rules and laws are already in place, but after the Bangkok disaster as well as the Cabangan bridge collapse, it may be wiser to deliberate on design and safety requirements to avoid similar incidents from happening in the Philippines.

When the big one hits Metro Manila or urbanized suburbs, does the government have a regularly updated list or inventory of heavy equipment, dump trucks, ambulances that can be tapped or commandeered for disaster response?

Something we don’t really talk about is, when such a disaster finally happens, do we have enough trained first aid “volunteers” and medical personnel to help out? First aid courses and rescue training should be mandatory, with subsequent refresher courses for all Filipinos aged 18 and above.

Metro Manila has been spared a major earthquake or super typhoon for quite some time, but we should not push our luck or settle for mere compliance with disaster preparedness. It will happen.

“This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth and the sea.’” – Haggai 2:6