EDITORIAL - On holiday break

The official death toll from Storm Seniang remained at 54 yesterday amid reports that more bodies were being pulled out of the landslides that buried communities during the holidays in parts of the Visayas and Mindanao. Stopping the official death count seems to be a favored tack of this administration in dealing with the inconvenient truth of too many bodies piling up.

Survivors of Seniang’s landslides and destructive floods have other urgent problems even as they mourn the dead. In Butuan, thousands of people sheltered in evacuation centers have reportedly faced an acute shortage of food and water since the storm struck last week. They are also still waiting for electricity to be restored.

After Super Typhoon Yolanda struck in November 2013, disaster preparedness was supposed to have vastly improved. The improvements were on display last month when Typhoon Ruby or Hagupit roared across most of the same areas devastated by Yolanda.

Yet Ruby still left at least 19 confirmed fatalities. There was no reason to relax disaster preparedness after Ruby. But perhaps because the year was ending and it was the holiday season, and perhaps because Seniang was classified as a tropical storm that was weaker than Ruby, the last weather disturbance of 2014 appeared to have caught everyone unprepared. Residents in the storm-hit areas admitted that they prepared for Ruby but not for Seniang. Local and disaster mitigation officials probably agree but will not openly admit that they failed to prepare for the storm.

President Aquino, who before Yolanda had given disaster officials the ambitious goal of ensuring zero casualties during typhoons, should find out what happened to disaster preparedness as Seniang approached. The death toll from the storm is made more grievous by the fact that it happened in what is supposed to be the nation’s most joyous season. This tragedy should serve as a warning to everyone that weather disturbances don’t take a holiday break. Neither should disaster preparedness.