How a history lesson helped a small Cebu town prepare for future disasters

(Updated 11:39 p.m., November 26, 2013) Every March 25, the residents of San Francisco town in the Camotes Islands in Cebu conduct a municipal-wide disaster response drill.

 

The importance of the drill is evident. Though all of the houses on the tiny island were destroyed by Super Typhoon Yolanda, no one was killed. Yolanda went on to kill at least 5,000 people in other areas. But why is the drill held on that date?

 

According to the town’s former mayor, Alfredo Arquillano, it marks the day before Typhoon Bising hit their town on March 26, 1982.

 

“The evacuation is part of our regular drills, which started a few years back,” he told GMA News Online in a phone interview.

 

“We should commemorate what happened so the people will take it seriously. We had that experience in 1980s, and we should remember those events. We cannot take it for granted,” he added.

 

Aside from town-wide drills, there are also regular drills in every barangay to prepare the people for weather disturbances that may hit their town.

 

Under the auspices of Arquillano, the town of San Francisco won the UN’s Sasakawa Award for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2011. He has also been named a champion of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign. The current town mayor has taken a cue from his older brother, a decision that helped save lives in a region now reeling from super typhoon Yolanda.

 

San Francisco town was recently hailed by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDIR) for posting zero fatalities as Yolanda barreled through the Visayas on November 8.

 

Pacijan Island, where San Francisco was built, is sandwiched between the islands of Cebu and Leyte, both of which were highly devastated by the super typhoon.

 

A day before the typhoon made landfall, some 1,000 residents of Tuland Diyot, an islet under San Francisco’s jurisdiction, were told to leave their homes.

 

“My goodness, it was a good decision. It’s fair to say it saved everyone’s life,” he said in a separate statement.

 

“It just shows that preparedness pays. We have been working for years on early warnings, evacuations. The awareness level of the community was so high that it went well,” he added.

 

Empower the people

 

Aside from drills, Arquillano said it is equally important to empower the people through education.

 

To improve information dissemination, the former mayor translated the five priority actions under the Hyogo Framework of Action in the vernacular and posted them in every barangay hall. The Hyogo Framework advocates prioritizing disaster risk reduction in the local level, monitoring disaster risks and enhancing early warning systems, building a culture of safety and resilience, reducing risk factors, and strengthening disaster preparedness and response.

 

“The bottom line - it’s all about education… How can we create awareness? [We] equip every citizen with knowledge and enhance the adapted capacity in the household level,” he noted.

 

Aside from that, the people were also involved in mapping their areas and identifying who will need to evacuate in case of storms.  

“Na-obserbahan ko, maganda pag na-organize ang tao… Mas madali ang information dissemination kasi alam nila kung sino ang vulnerable.”

 

Yes to change

 

“We cannot say that we are resilient already. We have to rethink, analyze and evaluate. What if we are in the case of [Tacloban City]? We have to anticipate,” he added.

 

“We have to really take this seriously [because] we can reduce the risk.” — JDS/DVM, GMA News