EDITORIAL - Building for resilience

Ten years after Super Typhoon Yolanda turned much of Eastern Visayas into a wasteland, have lessons been learned in disaster preparedness and resilience? In the catastrophic aftermath of the typhoon, there was much talk about building back better and designing resilience into the reconstruction effort.

The initial response of the Philippine government had been dazed incoherence. Fortunately, emergency response and rebuilding were made easier by the massive outpouring of aid from the international community, which sent not only relief goods but also aircraft, troops and experts who set up emergency shelters and helped restore basic utility services. Sadly, rescue efforts came too late for many. By the time Yolanda exited, over 6,300 people were dead, with more missing and never found even when the international rescue teams with special equipment were deployed.

Yolanda affected an estimated 16 million people in 41 provinces across nine regions, but Eastern Visayas was the worst hit. Tacloban City, where four ships ran aground due to powerful storm surges up to seven meters high, turned one of the vessels into a memorial for those who perished. The devastated lives and livelihoods created a humanitarian crisis, with refugees struggling to rebuild their lives even as they mourned the loss of loved ones.

There were discussions about declaring certain coastal areas off-limits to human habitation, but this was deemed to exacerbate the woes of marginalized fishing communities. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration stressed that it issued accurate forecasts and warnings about Yolanda, but the national and local governments failed to grasp the seriousness of the threat posed by storm surges.

Since then, with more storm surges hitting other places across the country, the nation has developed a better understanding of the dangers posed by the weather disturbance. But whether preparedness has improved commensurately with the awareness is debatable.

Building back better for disaster resilience, through engineering and architectural interventions, has also been spotty. With the country visited each year by an average of 20 tropical cyclones, and with limited resources, fatalism remains deeply ingrained in the average Filipino when it comes to dealing with natural calamities.

Still, there are some bright spots. Tacloban City has bounced back, although the scars of lives lost run deep. Plantations that were razed by Yolanda have recovered and livelihoods restored. From the tragedy, other parts of the country have enhanced protocols in preparing for storm surges. With the existential threats posed by climate change, more can be done by way of disaster preparedness and resilience.