Simultaneous earthquake drills held nationwide
MANILA, Philippines—How do you protect yourself during an earthquake? Duck, cover and hold.
“It is very important to make sure know how to respond by doing duck, cover and hold approach where people would either hide beneath the table, or hold the table during the shaking or go to safer positions and covering their body with their hands or light objects and staying put in that position and holding on before evacuating,” Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology Director Renato Solidum Jr. said on Friday.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council held its first quarter nationwide simultaneous earthquake drill at Marikina City Hall as ceremonial pilot venue.
The drill was witnessed by NDRRMC chair and Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, DRRMC Executive Director Alexander Pama, Solidum and Marikina government officials led by Mayor Del de Guzman.
Sirens rang at 9 a.m. signaling that an earthquake struck. Employees of the city hall came out from their offices to participate in the drill.
The responders established command posts and conducted high angle rescue operations, as well as search, rescue and retrieval operations.
A scenario of a fire followed after the earthquake. Firefighters responded until it was declared fire out.
Road clearing operations were also made by local and national responders.
A looting incident also followed at Marquinton condominiums where suspects were treated with maximum tolerance.
Another part of the scenario was the registration of evacuees at Marikina Sports Center.
Disaster preparedness
“All of these scenes we have observed would tell us that everyone should take disaster preparedness as their own business or disaster preparedness is everyone’s business,” said Solidum.
Two other secondary pilot venues that simultaneously conducted related exercises on the drill were the AFP Grandstand at Camp Aguinaldo and the Santolan Station of the Light Rail Transit Line 2. These areas served as incident command system.
Government offices, commercial establishments and nongovernment organizations across the nation also participated in the local drills.
“Today’s nationwide simultaneous earthquake drill is a mandatory requirement for our preparedness efforts. We have been conducting drills using various scenarios for years and these drills have continuously assisted us in the attainment of our goal, that is, to instill proactiveness on our people, and promote preparedness and capability upgrade on the part of our local government,” Gazmin said.
The drill scenario was taken from the results of the Metro Manila Earthquake Impact Reduction Study in 2004 that detailed a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in the Valley Fault System would rock Metro Manila and nearby provinces of Bulacan, Rizal and Laguna. RC
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