Majority of CALABARZON residents have no disaster plan for volcanic eruption, survey says

On Sunday, Taal Volcano, located in the province of Batangas of CALABARZON region, sent nearby residents scrambling from their homes as it spewed out dark steam plume during its phreatic eruption.

Despite this, however, 100% of households surveyed in CALABARZON had no disaster management plan specific for a volcanic eruption, according to Harvard Humanitarian Initiative Program on Resilient Communities' 2017 nationwide household survey released on Tuesday.

The survey — which randomly selected a nationally representative sample of 4,368 adults while taking a sample size of 624 households for CALABARZON — also said that 99.80% of households surveyed nationwide had no disaster management plan for volcanic eruptions.

Although all the households didn't have a plan for a volcanic eruption, 80% of the CALABARZON households said that they discussed an emergency plan in general as a family.

Nationwide, only 13% of Filipinos experienced a volcanic eruption while only 22% of the CALABARZON population experienced a volcanic eruption and lava such as lahar, pyroclastic flows, and ash flows. Fortunately, more than half of the population (75%) learned how to respond to natural disasters from their own experiences.

Although, half of the households in the region had medical insurance (52%) only few had life (21%), asset (3%), and house (2%) insurance.

Given the lack of preparation, only 19% as well of the CALABARZON population believe they can recover should a natural disaster happen.

Majority of the people living in the region said that they saw their local government units as their primary source of assistance after a disaster (89%) while less than half of the population (23%) believe they can sustain themselves without help should their home be affected by a natural disaster.

Most of the households felt that their houses (70%) were the most vulnerable in terms of infrastructure, followed by roads (19%), schools and farmlands (17%).

Lack of money became the top barrier to disaster preparation (41%), followed by the lack of skills or knowledge (16%), lack of time (15%), physical disability (3%), and feeling that disaster preparation was unnecessary (1%).

However, 68% of the CALABARZON population believe that if a disaster does come, people will work together and support each other in an organized way.

On Tuesday, PHIVOLCS announced that Taal Volcano's activity will remain at alert level 4 with the possibility of a hazardous eruption anytime soon. — LA, GMA News