Quake drill declared a ‘big success’ in Metro

EARTHQUAKE DRAMA A girl cries as her mother acts as an injured victim on Guadalupe Bridge in Makati City during the nationwide earthquake drill on Wednesday. Metro Manila authorities declared the exercise a success. The drill drew more than 6.5 million participants. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

Alarms and sirens sounded at 9 a.m. in Metro Manila on Wednesday, signaling that a 7.2-magnitude earthquake had struck and sending millions of employees and students out of schools and offices in an exercise for a long anticipated massive temblor officials said is likely to hit the capital anytime.

The second Metro Manila Shake Drill was bigger than last year’s, drawing more than 6.5 million participants, according to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

The MMDA said the social media reach of on Wednesday’s simulation hit 3.5 billion, or a billion more than  last year.

“This reach means the total number of people who tweeted and posted on social media platforms using the hashtag #MMShakeDrill,” said MMDA spokesperson Goddes Hope Libiran.

For the first time, Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog, and shopping malls in the capital joined the exercise, Libiran said. “It was a big success. A lot of people participated in more close-to-real scenarios of earthquake damage.”

Simulation

There was the simulation of fire suppression, collapsed structure, mass evacuation, high-angle rescue, debris clearing and looting, among others—similar to the scenarios last year.

These will happen when a strong earthquake hits Metro Manila, with Director Renato Solidum of the Philippine Institue of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) saying that the entire 23.8-kilometer stretch of Edsa will be destroyed.

“The importance of surviving the earthquake is for us to allocate our resources even better,” said MMDA Chair Emerson Carlos.

“The tremendous reach the exercise generated, the observance of command protocols, and the creative earthquake scenarios performed are hopefully translated into actions that would pave the way for a more prepared and resilient society in facing an earthquake of this magnitude,” he said.

Valley Fault System

In May last year, Phivolcs released the Valley Fault System Atlas containing detailed maps of the areas near the earthquake faults—the East Valley Fall, which runs through Rizal and the West Valley Fault from Bulacan to Rizal, Metro Manila, Cavite and Laguna.

The agency said a strong movement, or the equivalent of a magnitude 7.2 quake, from the fault was possible and could kill more than 30,000 people and destroy 170,000 houses based on its studies.

The atlas also showed that 72 barangays in the cities of Pasig, Quezon, Marikina, Makati, Taguig and Muntinlupa are sitting on the fault line.

In Wednesday’s exercise, a piercing siren prompted the teenage students of Camp Aguinaldo High School to calmly shuffle out of their classrooms, covering their heads. Five minutes later at the school’s covered court, the students settled down and chatted idly.

Awareness

The school regularly conducts drills, said Joshua Emerson, an eighth grader. “It helps us to be ready for a real earthquake, so we’re ready and alert. We always duck, cover and hold.”

Ma. Pilar Capalongan, the principal, said: “Awareness is very important for students, teachers and the community. Students should be aware of what to do in case of disasters.”

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said 1,454 people were “killed” in the various scenarios in Metro Manila during the quake drill.

The NDRRMC spokesperson, Romina Marasigan, said some 15,560 went “missing” while 14,180 were “injured” during the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that was simulated  on Wednesday.

The scenarios painted for the quake drill included the collapse of Guadalupe Bridge and the MRT station near it, the collapse of airport towers,  looting at a shopping mall in Marikina, and several fires in Metro Manila.

NDRRMC Executive Director Alexander Pama said the government was able to increase the awareness of citizens on such exercises, and the response of concerned agencies.

“It was a success in the context that we achieved our objectives for this exercise, the awareness of our countrymen and we were able to practice our responses to the scenarios,” he said.

‘I panicked’

Vicente Tomazar, a disaster management director in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon), said more than 1.3 million people joined the drill in Calabarzon.

“Our aim is to make the ‘duck, cover and hold’ a habit or first instinct during tremors because it could mean a life or death situation for all of us,” Henry Buzar, a local disaster management official, said in Lucena City.

Buzar recalled his disappointment during the 5.2-magnitude quake that hit the  province in February. Panic gripped the city as rumors of collapsed buildings and a tsunami circulated.

In Tagbilaran City, when the alarm rang at 9 a.m., Junmark Tasic, 16, took cover. The Grade 9 student said he did not want the same thing to happen again when a 7.2-magnitude earthquake shook Bohol and killed at least 200 people on Oct. 15, 2013.

“I could not forget what happened at that time because I panicked,” he said. With reports from Maricar Cinco, Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Michael B. Jaucian and Madonna T. Virola, Inquirer Southern Luzon; Leo Udtohan and Joey A. Gabieta, Inquirer Visayas; Karlos Manlupig and Judy Quiros, Inquirer Mindanao; Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon; and Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon