LGUs told: Familiarize danger zones

CEBU, Philippines - To craft efficient disaster preparedness plans, officials of Cebu’s 51 towns and cities have been urged to familiarize themselves with the danger zones plotted in hazard maps.

Baltazar Tribunalo Jr, Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO) chief, said the geohazard map is a great help to the local government units in preventing massive damage on lives and properties during calamities, citing that the maps specify disaster-prone areas in the community.

Tribunalo said they are currently distributing hazard maps, which details are written in the vernacular for easy understanding, to all villages in the province.

“We translated the hazard maps in the Visayan language and distributed them to all the barangays,” he said.

The maps are given to LGUs along with recommendations especially on prohibiting habitation and utilization of the land.

The maps also highlight areas that are affected by or vulnerable to a particular hazard. They are typically created for natural hazards, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, flooding and tsunamis.

Tribunalo said Cebu reportedly has three fault systems—two are in the northern and southern Cebu, while the other is in the central part of the province.

A fault line is a fracture in the rocks of the earth’s crust or boundaries between the tectonic plates.

Based on the hazard maps, the “north fault,” which compromises of Bogo City and San Remegio town, is marked red to indicate it has “active” fault lines.

The other towns and cities in the northern part of Cebu are marked black to indicate that they might be “potentially active.”

The “central Cebu fault,” on the other hand, transects the cities of Danao, Cebu, Talisay, Naga, and Toledo and the towns of Compostela, Minglanilla and Balamban.

The towns of Sibonga, Argao, Badian, Moalboal, Alegria, Dalaguete, Boljoon, and Alcoy are found under the “south fault”.

With these identified fault lines, Tribunalo advised the local government officials to equip themselves with knowledge on danger zones in their respective localities.

“Your knowledge and better grasp of geohazard maps of the different barangys will rebound to faster and more efficient response/mitigation as well as better disaster preparedness programs,” he said.

Tribunalo also said full cooperation among LGUs is a major key for Cebu to have an operative disaster plans, especially during earthquake.

Tribunalo, along with Cebu’s disaster officers and emergency responders, attended the press briefing organized by the Philippine Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) last Wednesday. The two-day workshop on earthquake awareness and preparedness was Phivolcs official Dr. Renato Solidum.

Solidum noted that for the last 100 years there have been no seismic activities in these fault lines, making them potential sources for “the big one,” referring to tremors up to intensity eight.

“These areas have seismic gap or big earthquake gap that when these faults will move, they may generate a strong earthquake,” Solidum said.

Aside from damaging structures, Solidum said strong earthquakes may also cause the loss of lives or injuries; may affect water, power, communication and transport systems; and may also disrupt public services and interrupt revenues from business or economic development.

Solidum said one could acquire a lesson from the recent magnitude 6.5 earthquake that struck Leyte last July 6.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau in Central Visayas has been also monitoring at least 100 areas in province since last year due to reported sinkholes.

According to an earlier assessment of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-7, these areas are characterized by “porous, coralline, bedded to massive limestone of Carcar of which formation sometimes intercalated with mari and grades into rubbly to conglomeritic limestone.”

Aside from inherently porous, DENR also noted that limestone in these areas is characterized by the presence of solution cavities, sinkholes and caves. These features make limestone susceptible to ground subsidence hazards and could be triggered by earthquake and the like. (FREEMAN)