Get ready for storm challenges
Whether it’s prescient or not, 2012 as the Year of the Blue Water Dragon indicates that more flooding disasters, including the biggest sendoff for 2011 in tropical storm Sendong, will happen in the country.
With massive reforestation still a work in progress led by the private sector, rather than the national government, public officials will really have to do what President Benigno Aquino III ordered – revisit manuals for rescue and relief operations as well as revamp existing flood mitigation measures.
Drainage master plans are still rusting in the pipeline due to lack of funds and assorted excuses. A positive note is that some institutions like the University of the Philippines in Manila have taken it upon themselves to train counselors who will help comfort families, whose loved ones perished in natural and man-made calamities.
The initiative was proposed in the aftermath of Dec. 16’s Sendong, where over 1,200 drowned or were buried in landslides. UP officials said these counselors could augment the ranks of local social workers, who have their hands full distributing relief aid to survivors.
What’s also laudable is a proposal for the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to tap volunteer nurses and medical personnel in disaster victim identification (DVI) work. This would ease the burden of the NBI, which has a ton of work in its hands.
With training, volunteer medical personnel can handle DVI work. With their exposure to hospital work pressure, they are used to dealing with death. Calamities like the “Sendong” storm require all available help on board.
The government could also tap surplus nurses in the country, particularly in Cebu, and doctors in a DVI program in the event their assistance is needed in the province or elsewhere in the country.
Cebu City had the good fortune of receiving donated medical equipment for DVI work following the 2008 sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars.
Cebu local governments also need to create a single conduit for the donation of goods, cash and other forms of assistance to victims of national calamities.
After typhoon “Ondoy” in 2009, there were plans of setting up a centralized warehouse for relief goods in Cebu.
What happened to these plans to map out a logistics protocol to quickly gather donations from various fund drives and ship them out efficiently where they are most needed?
With Cebu’s central location in the archipelago, this would be a strategic move indeed.
The public usually turns to national media outlets to give their donations. But even giants like ABS-CBN and GMA 7 can benefit from better coordination in collecting and transporting donations to the intended recipients.
May we consider these points as we wrap up the year 2011 and brace ourselves for more aberrations of weather in 2012.
