EDITORIAL - Lessons not learned

As of early evening yesterday, the death toll from Tropical Storm Urduja had risen to 40, with over 30 more still missing and feared buried in landslides that struck several areas in Eastern Visayas. Residents in the hardest hit community in Biliran, where a landslide buried alive over 20 persons including children, said they did not feel at risk because the mountain slope behind them had not been denuded.

Incessant rains over the weekend, however, loosened the soil enough to unleash an avalanche of mud, trees and boulders from the slopes down to the community at the foot of the mountain. Members of the disaster coordinating committee said the area had long been identified as a risk zone.

The grievous toll from a tropical storm should spur better coordination among disaster officials and the communities that sprout in risk areas. There are people who ignore disaster risk warnings, but it’s not impossible to get them out of harm’s way when the risk is heightened by a weather disturbance. Barangay officials in particular are supposed to be familiar with communities in their jurisdiction and should know enough about weather disturbances in this country to provide timely warning about potential mudslides.

There have been deadly mudslides in recent years to give urgency to such warnings. In February 2006, also following about 10 days of incessant rains, a mild earthquake of magnitude 2.6 unleashed a landslide that buried the entire village of Guinsaugon in the town of Saint Bernard in Southern Leyte. Over 1,100 people were buried alive. The villages hit by Urduja’s landslides show what happens when lessons are not learned from previous disasters.