Weather’s a-changin’

There used to be a time when weather disturbances were confined to pockets of Philippine territory.

A typhoon in northern Luzon did not have much impact in Metro Manila, and there would be sun in the beach in the Visayas.

But this week, Bob Dylan’s 1960s song “Times they are a’changing” had a prophetic ring. Typhoon Gener which was forecast to hit northern Luzon wreaked havoc down south.

It flooded Metro Manila and blew winds of up to 60 kilometers per hour, traditionally signal no. 1 based on the weather bureau’s storm warning protocol.

In the Visayas, it swept away six fishermen in northern Cebu. Five Bantayan fishermen were later rescued in Biliran Island. One is still missing. The typhoon cancelled the voyages of dozens of passenger vessels.

Talisay City’s coast got a beating with a conspiracy of Typhoon Gener enhancing the southwest monsoon or habagat and the full moon tide of almost two meters.

More than 150 households were displaced and about a thousand people were left wet and shaken.

This brings us to again examine the disaster management regime that was adopted in 2010 with the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Act (Republic Act 10121) or the DRRM Law.

What happened in Talisay City may be a case of lack of appreciation of disaster risk reduction. Since Cebu is an island province, the relationship of communities with the sea is a very important factor in planning.

It’s easy for local officials to mark coastal communities as areas of high risk for storm surges, an abnormal monsoon or tsunami.

The familiar refrain of people asking for a relocation site or officials appealing for people to go to safer grounds when the weather goes haywire sounds like a broken record.

Mitigating measures are well within the managerial control of many local government units. Building dikes or seawalls are available engineering solutions.

Under the DRRM Law, 70 percent of the calamity fund can be released for disaster preparedness and impact mitigation.

Are cities and towns in Cebu using this? Sadly no or not with any impact yet.

With this, local governments have little excuse and lots of explaining to do if they are caught unprepared for annual rains and misbehaving seas.

With Climate Change bringing about a rise in sea level, we are forced to adapt.

Otherwise we will just sink in more emergencies that could have been avoided.

While we are figuring how to swim better the next time around, let’s enjoy Dylan’s 1960s prophecy:

“Come gather ’round people, Wherever you roam, And admit that the waters around you have grown.

“And accept it that soon, you’ll be drenched to the bone, If your time to you, is worth savin’, then you better start swimmin’, or you’ll sink like a stone. For the times they are a-changin’.”