EDITORIAL - Improving preparedness

Weather forecasters gave sufficient warning: Typhoon Lawin is a Category 5 monster howler, and it’s roaring across the Philippines. Experts warned that the typhoon, known internationally as Haima, poses greater risks of triggering deadly landslides because Typhoon Karen, which struck Luzon just days ago, had brought rains that spawned extensive flooding and loosened the soil.

Lawin is also likely to bring storm surges more than 15 feet high, weather experts warned. The monster storm has been likened to Super Typhoon Yolanda, whose powerful storm surges brought death and cataclysmic destruction across vast swaths of Leyte and Eastern Samar.

Like Lawin, Yolanda also struck late in the year, roaring across the Visayas in November 2013. The shell-shocked, disorganized government response to the killer typhoon showed the weakness of the nation’s preparedness for disasters. There was a shortage of everything, from emergency rescue vehicles to search and rescue personnel to medical and food supplies and temporary shelters.

Fortunately for the disaster areas, there was a timely and overwhelming response from much of the international community to provide all forms of assistance especially in worst-hit Tacloban. To this day, several foreign governments and multilateral bodies have continuing aid programs in the Yolanda-hit areas.

Yolanda was supposed to have provided sufficient lessons in disaster preparedness and mitigation. The lessons learned should be evident in preparations for Typhoon Lawin. Classes are suspended and flights canceled today in the affected areas, and evacuation has started in low-lying communities. If the howler stays on track, it will spare much of Luzon and unleash its wrath on areas that are not so densely populated. Still, the toll can be considerable.

Disaster preparedness needs constant upgrading. Evacuation centers everywhere can still use much improvement, so that people will not think twice about leaving their homes for safer ground during powerful typhoons. Alert protocols can still be fine-tuned for flooding and release of dam water. Emergency health facilities can still be improved.

Before Yolanda, the previous administration had aimed for zero casualties during typhoons. A police officer was sanctioned for reporting a local official’s estimate that the number of dead and missing from Yolanda could reach 10,000; the government stopped the official count at past 6,000. Since then, disaster preparedness should have vastly improved, and the government can aspire for a low or even zero casualty count from Lawin.