Preparing and preparing needlessly

If there was one thing that truly amazed me regarding Typhoon Juan, it was the amount of preparation that went into meeting it. And for this I acknowledge experience, which is the best teacher of all.

The country's experience with Typhoon Ondoy late last year was just too devas-tating and traumatic for anyone to forget and not learn anything from. With Juan being described as a super typhoon, how can a nation brought to its knees by Ondoy take any more chances.

The preparations for Juan's wrath were so sweeping that, in some instances, they actually became ridiculous. In Cebu City, for instance, which was far enough to be seri-ously affected, it was pathetic to see rescue personnel and equipment idly waiting for ac-tion that never came.

But of course no action was anticipated. All forecasts, both local and foreign, were one in saying the typhoon was to hit northern Luzon. While nothing is impossible, it was stretching the imagination too much to expect it to veer drastically and threaten Cebu.

From the news footages shown on tv, I could not make out where the rescue per-sonnel and their equipment were waiting, but I would presume they were at City Hall. That meant they had to go there, lugging along their heavy gear, and then lug them again to go home.

I am a great believer of prudence and should be the last person to criticize it. But sometimes overreaction can spoil the good intentions of prudence. And I think the prepa-rations of Cebu City reflected one of those times.

Typhoon Juan was simply too far away for Cebu City to undertake the prepara-tions that it did. And while it caused no harm, it simply looks ridiculous for us to react in similar fashion each time there is a weather disturbance.

Perhaps the best and most prudent thing to do is to develop a system of alert schedules in coordination with the weather bureau. It should be one where the appropriate preparation or response automatically kicks in once a certain alert level is announced specifically for Cebu.

More importantly, a specific typhoon response contingent should be constituted and given its own operational headquarters. This will prevent response units from other agencies from having to be called to City Hall, along with their heavy equipment, and there told to stand by and wait.

Good if something happens because then prudence shall have paid off. But if, like the preparations for Juan, nothing happens, then the effort shall have been for naught, es-pecially effort that, in the first place, should not have been made.

At least, if a typhoon response contingent has its own place, its members will be ready all the time without having to be summoned needlessly to move their gear some-where and then bring them back again in case nothing happens.

For there is a difference between preparing and preparing needlessly. To be pre-pared is always good. But to be prepared needlessly can result in losses. The losses may be insignificant if they occur only once or twice. But if repeated endlessly over time, they will eventually hurt.

Thus, if we are to be prepared all the time, then the best thing to do is constitute our own response team and give them their own place where their state of readiness and preparation is constant and in accordance with their own standards, not on the determina-tion of the unqualified.

This is the way how other countries deal with their own emergency needs. They are truly big on specifics - specific personnel, specific equipment, specific headquarters, specific responses to specific needs, specific guidelines, specific authorities.

What we do not need is something haphazard, something dependent on the deter-mination of somebody with authority but not the expertise and qualification. Cebu City must deal with the need to be prepared in a very professional and organized way. Ce-buanos deserve nothing less.