Commentary: Lessons learned from Ondoy

Tacloban City (9 October) -- Watching the unraveling of the great flood in Metro Manila on September 26 caused by Ondoy and the coverage of typhoon Pepeng on September 3 brings realizations and lessons that must be heeded lest the same calamity will happen once again in the future.

In contrast with the chaos during the Metro Manila disaster, with the government leading, there was orderly and systematic preparation and evacuation of constituents who are prone to become victims of the onslaught of typhoon Peping.

First and foremost, the first lesson indeed, is to heed the warnings and alerts from PAG-ASA, Phivolcs, NDCC, local defense office, local government executives, the military or the police. They aim to save your life, give them your fullest cooperation.

Operationalize all the disaster coordination council from the barangays to the highest level of governance. Many times, there are indeed organized disaster coordination councils but they are not functional. Policies such as when there is typhoon signal number 1 in the area, the members of the local disaster coordination council should immediately go to the operations center, ready to mobilize. Drivers of dump trucks are notified to be on standby for possible deployment; rubber boats if there are any readied, evacuation centers are prepared and relief food prepositioned.

Very important is a vicinity map or the geo-hazard maps made by the Mines and Geosciences. As reports from the different areas arrive, red pins could be placed in the specific areas. Though this, the area of the calamity could immediately be analyzed.

If the disaster coordination council is IT equipped, a vicinity map should also be used for the same reason. This is Situation Mapping which allows one to locate activities on a map providing current situation like where rescue teams have been sent, where relief operations are being currently done.

Another important thing which could be done right there on the computer is the Organization Registry which lists Who is doing What and Where. This allows relief agencies to self organize the activities rendering fine coordination among them.

A must during calamities is the Missing Person Registry which helps to report and search missing persons; Disaster Victim Registry to be able to trace internally displaced people and their needs; Request/Aid management which tracks requests for aid and matches them against donors who have pledged aid.

Very crucial is the Shelter Inventory or Evacuation Centers Inventory to keep track of the location, distribution, capacity and breakdown of victims in shelter.

Inventory Management is also very important in order to effectively and efficiently manage rescue and relief aid so that items which require refill will be immediately known.

There should also be good Volunteer Management so that one will immediately know which volunteer groups are needed according to their skills.

A golden rule in times of disaster is to coordinate with the right government institution. An uncoordinated act will always end in a messy outcome. The NDCC has been tapped, then all actions being taken by both private and government entities should be reported to NDCC. This avoids duplications of tasks and prevent others who need help not being aided.

Going back to the first and foremost observation, no amount of advocacies or information dissemination the government will do, if the citizens do not take them to heart and really heed the warning, tragedies will still happen.

Thus, may Ondoy and Peping, open people's eyes to prepare family relief packs which they can immediately pick up at the assigned location anytime there is an emergency.

Moreover, heed the cry of the environment. Start taking care of the environment and it will take care of you in return. All these things done, don't forget to utter a prayer, "Into your Hands I commend my spirit O Lord." "Your will, not mine, be done." 

PIA Press Release
2009/10/09