Overcoming panic

Like death, natural calamities serve as equalizers.  Whatever one’s age, health and status in life, a disaster affects everyone in its path.

Yesterday’s magnitude 6.9 earthquake that shook Negros Oriental, Dumaguete City, Bohol, Iloilo City and Cebu drove people from all walks of life out of their houses, offices and schools and into the streets in a panic.

The quake also reached parts of Mindanao, notably Cagayan de Oro, which had just been hit by last December’s tropical storm Sendong, and Butuan City. At least 40  were killed in Negros Oriental, including  29 people buried by a landslide  in a  mountain barangay.

We can only hope the death toll stops there and with it, the incessant false text messages and alarmist phone calls that have driven hundreds of Cebu residents into a frenzy.

A store employee working in downtown   Colon in Cebu City received a frantic phone call from his wife, who said water was seeping into their house from out of nowhere.

That phone call and his resulting warning   to fellow employees to run upstairs to avoid a deluge  spread like wildfire, scaring hundreds of passersby in the Colon area to run away to seek higher ground.

It didn’t help that people reacted with fright to local radio broadcasts that Phivolcs had raised a tsunami alert 2 following the earthquake.

Tsunami alert level 2 only means that people should stay away from coastal areas and be watchful. It’s not an order to evacuate.  But people haunted by last year’s tsunami in Japan don’t know that.  When a real tsunami strikes, the response time would be in minutes, even seconds.

Thankfully no one was hurt even if Cebu City officials were slow to cut through the confusion and take charge in calming down residents.

It was a good move on the part of some barangay officials who went around the neighborhood in multicabs with megaphones to remind  people that there was no tsunami coming.

If anything, yesterday’s scare showed the importance of  preparing city residents to deal with the inevitability of earthquakes and other calamities. That it happened nearly a year after Japan, a first-world nation with superior anti-disaster contingencies, was nearly  crippled by a tsunami, makes this a more critical agenda.

The panic sown by false texts and  phone calls fed on ignorance.  It underscored the importance of having a communication plan for emergencies and a local command center that is ready to  take to the airwaves to calm down jitters.

Earthquake drills are more valuable now.   Most  important is the need for people to stay calm, informed and prepared for contingencies.

It pays to practice for the worst.