Phivolcs wants schools to share evacuation plans

MANILA, Philippines - Communities could benefit from the evacuation plans and drills designed for public and private schools by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

Phivolcs director Renato Solidum told reporters Wednesday that teachers could ask their students, in the form of an assignment, to come up with an earthquake evacuation plan for their homes.

“When I ask people if they have an earthquake evacuation plan at home, most would say they don’t have one,” said Solidum, a resource speaker for the forum sponsored by the Carlos P. Romulo Foundation for Peace and Development.

“Why not give an assignment for students to create their earthquake evacuation plan at home? Involve their parents, come up with a drawn outline of their house, directions to the evacuation route; define the plan’s consistency with that of the barangay’s evacuation plan. If this would be done, I believe community preparedness would be easier and faster,” he said.

He added Phivolcs has developed and distributed earthquake evacuation plan modules to various schools.

Using schools to promote awareness on the need to have earthquake evacuation plans for homes was an idea hatched in Armenia when it was hit by a 6.8-magnitude earthquake in December 1988, he said.

“A school principal in Armenia facilitated the project for his students and their families,” he said.

The Phivolcs chief also called for the retrofitting of houses and buildings in Metro Manila to make them earthquake-resilient.

According to a study made by Phivolcs and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Metro Manila is due for a 7.2-magnitude earthquake to be possibly generated by the West Valley Fault System.

Phivolcs said the last time the West Valley Fault System moved was in 1658.

It added that since the average interval of the fault system’s movement is 400 to 600 years, there is a greater probability of an earthquake affecting Filipinos in this lifetime.

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake affecting Metro Manila and at least five towns in Rizal province could leave 37,000 people dead and approximately P2.5 trillion in economic losses. Such calamity could also leave 140,000 people seriously injured and 11 million square meters in total land area severely damaged.

“If the earthquake is in Metro Manila and the source is the valley fault, there is no warning. You would feel the shaking immediately, the primary wave,” Solidum noted.

“We have a special study for Metro Manila. We have already many sensors around. We are monitoring the Valley Fault by GPS (global positioning system). In some cases, we could monitor the ground moving but not the triggering of an earthquake,” he said, comparing the movements of the fault system to a rubber band.