Disaster units told: Don’t be complacent

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu’s disaster control units are directed to put efficient and effective mitigating measures in place despite the calm weather in the province.

Engineer Alfredo Quiblat Jr, Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA)-Cebu officer-in-charge, said disaster units should not be complacent because the country is about to enter a season wherein development of tropical cyclones (locally known as bagyo) would be more frequent.

“Before the end of November, nine to 14 tropical cyclones are seen to develop and enter PAR (Philippine Area of Responsibility) and these would be mostly frequent in the months of August, September and October,” he said in a radio-live forum dubbed “Kapihan sa PIA” organized by the Philippine Information Agency-Cebu province.

Quiblat said is it only fitting for disaster units to come up with measures that would mitigate the adverse effects of typhoons and floods.

Despite the onset of the rainy season last month, Cebu has been experiencing fair weather. But Quiblat said this should not be a reason to be complacent.

He said the public may not feel the rainy season yet as Metro Cebu and other localities in the country are still experiencing breaks from the monsoon events.

“Just take precautionary measures against the impacts of the rainy season,” Quiblat said.

Being its core responsibility, he said, PAGASA will continue monitoring the atmospheric conditions so as to speedily disseminate up-to-date information, such as thunderstorm advisories and heavy rainfall warning.

“However, this will be a failure if others will not cooperate. We are equipped with modern technologies and already advanced in our communication system with social media but the primary challenge here is on the local disaster managers whether they heed to the advisories and provide immediate response,” he said.

Katherine dela Calzada of the Cebu Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office said its unit is constantly updating and disseminating PAGASA advisories to the province’s 51 towns and component cities.

Calzada said the office has been pouring investments on disaster preparedness and on equipping communities down to the household level through a purok or sitio-based system or the community-managed disaster risk reduction.

She said barangay response teams are already reactivated, while various stakeholders are helping the government come up with measures to achieve its goal of “zero casualty” during disasters.

“But it’s everyone’s shared responsibility to ensure that each household is ready for any disaster,” she said.

For his part, Harold Alcontin of the Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office said they are strengthening the city’s disaster preparedness by tapping homeowners associations.

He said the office has also gathered contact numbers from the barangay officers, various partner agencies, and non-government organizations that are included in its “text blast,” which provides localized information of weather advisories.

He said the office has also marked water gauge in major rivers in the city and installed flood warning signages.

He added that an inventory of the office’s resources was also done to check whether or not equipment and machineries are still functional.  At present, the machineries have already been prepositioned to the different clustered units.

Both the local disaster offices noted that people are now more responsive and cooperative following the past disasters, including the super typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

PAGASA-Cebu was among the panelists of the recently-concluded forum, seeking to highlight the observance of Typhoon and Flood Awareness Week slated for June 19 to 24.

The weather bureau has been holding series of orientations with representatives from the local government units to further educate officers on understanding the science-based information provided by the state weather bureau. (FREEMAN)