Music album on disaster response seeks to help people prepare for an actual earthquake

A group of academic professionals in the Philippines hopes to top the charts on disaster preparedness with the release of their new music album.

 

Guro sa Sining ng Bayan (Teachers of the Nation's Arts), an organisation of students and professors in the Philippines, came up with a 13-song album titled "Handa...Awit...Lindol!" (Prepare...Sing...Earthquake!), which gives a catchy yet informative take on calamity preparations.

 

Each song highlights a particular topic on disaster preparedness, ranging from what items to prepare in case of an emergency to what should be done when experiencing an actual earthquake.

 

Leomar Requejo, a Filipino language professor who sings and plays the guitar, said they had to make the music informative, yet relatable to the masses.

 

"My first thought was how to make it (disaster response procedure) easier and simpler for people in a community to understand because our enemy was the technical aspect of earthquakes," he said.

 

Their project started a few months after a magnitude 7.2 quake struck the central Philippines in 2013, killing more than 200 people and destroyed more than 14,000 homes.

 

It took them more than a year to complete their album, facing countless revisions to the lyrics and musical arrangements, often tapping the expertise of Philippine volcanology bureau to help out with the right phrasing.

 

Glecy Atienza, who heads the group's music album, said the brain was hard-wired to retain ideas using audio cues, making music suitable as medium for instructional materials.

 

"People today do not have time to read and they do not have much interest to look up pictures or reading materials, so we need to give them materials where they can learn quickly, easy and fast, quick information dissemination, and we believe that songs are one way to help. They can play it repeatedly to grasp the information needed," she said.

 

Philippine volcanology bureau director Renato Solidum said the album was the first of its kind and hopes to inspire more innovative ideas on information dissemination.

 

"Earthquake preparedness is very important. We're one of the earthquake prone countries of the world, and in the past 400 years we have suffered from 90 destructive earthquakes, and we need to make sure that people know what to do," he said.

 

The album can be acquired at the volcanology bureau for free, while a downloadable version can be accessed online.

 

Solidum said copies of the album will also be disseminated to the local governments and aired to public channels as part of the country's disaster preparation campaign.

 

The Philippines has been preparing for a major earthquake coming from a major fault line cutting through the capital, which has not moved for nearly 400 years.

 

A 2013 report by the Philippine volcanology bureau and Geosciences Australia said a magnitude 7.2 quake in Manila may level the capital, potentially killing more than 37,000 people and cause 2.4 billion pesos (56 million USD) worth of damage.

 

The Philippines is situated near a major fault line and is among the nations along the Pacific ring of fire known for volcanic activities and tremors.

 

The 2014 Global Climate Risk Index ranks the Philippines as the seventh most vulnerable country due to extreme weather-related events.  — Reuters