Taming the Dragon Fruit

Dr Abe V Rotor 
Dragon fruits from Vietnam

A hill of Dragon Fruit intercropped with coffee in Amadeo,
Cavite. This photo was taken during its non-fruiting season
in February 2010.

Dr Abe V Rotor

The color is bright pinkish red, this secret fruit of the Vietnamese that my wife brought home from that war torn country. It is large, it could weigh a kilogram and the price is equivalent to P100. The fruit is characterized by the presence of prominent calyxes arranged like the eyes of Irish potato. It resembles no other kind of fruit in the local market.

The skin is tight and leathery, and to peel it one must cut the fruit first into two or four. There is the white fleshy mass studded all over with countless tiny black seeds, and there is no way to eat it without eating the seeds, too. The taste is delicious, slightly sweet, refreshing, with fine texture and firmness of a ripe guava, sans its aroma.

My younger son, Leo Carlo, took some of the seeds and planted them. At that time I had no inkling that Dragon Fruit is a fruit of a cactus. Who would suspect it upon seeing the first pair of leaves? It is a dicot, all right, but to be a cactus species is remote.

After germination the characteristic cactus character soon emerges, spines begin to form at intervals on the a long unbranched proto-trunk. Unmistakably the seedling is a miniature of prickly pear cactus.

It was in Mexico where I first tasted cactus fruit, specifically in Texcoco, one hour ride from Mexico City, the site of the International Wheat and Corn Improvement Research Center (CIMMYT), the counterpart of our IRRI. I spent a season in the institute then working on tropical wheat, but I also had time to study other things.

The cactus pear Opuntia is popular in Mexico. It is known as nopalito. It is cooked or roasted after removing the spines, and is served as salad or cooked dish. It is also used as cattle feed, indeed an excellent supplement owing to the cactus’ high water content, and to the scarcity of other fresh feeds in this semi-arid region.

Opuntia has become a major source of animal feeds in Brazil, US, Peru, South Africa, Tunisia, and Italy. In Israel Opuntia is a promising crop for the arid and semi-arid areas. With the declining amount and high cost of water supply the thrust of agriculture is to find resistant but profitable crops for these marginal areas and wastelands. When I was attending a conference-workshop at the Afro-Asian Institute I saw Opuntia cultivated on an experimental farm near Ben-Gurion University. But it is for its medicinal value in alleviating symptoms of prostate cancer, I was told, an old Sicilian remedy that the Israelis are researching on. Today Prostacal a preparation from Opuntia extract is marketed worldwide by an international pharmaceutical company.

There is another edible cactus I found. It is as tall as an average person, its fruit half the size of a closed fist, and bright yellow to red when ripe, and the trees in season, break the otherwise dull and prosaic surrounding of the arid landscape. Much of Mexico is desert and it is here in the deserted Aztec city, Teotihuacan, where I found the plant which has these characteristics.

The stout trunk is cylindrical, bearing fleshy, flattened ascending jointed branches. The joints are green, 10 to 25 cm long, widest near the tip and narrowed at the base with cushion-like areoles that bear numerous spines or glocids in group. This description fits with that of the Philippine dilang-baka, Nopalea cochinellifera (L) Salm-Dyck which bears berries 5 cm long, pear-shaped fleshy, many-seeded, red, and is known to be edible. I suspect that the dilang baka cactus is the same species as the edible Mexican cactus that the Aztecs used. Probably it was introduced by the Spaniards into the Philippines among other plants from Mexico during the Spanish era, such as avocado, the national fruit of Mexico, kalachuche or frangipani, and acacia (Samanea saman). Dilang baka is known today only as an ornamental rather that an orchard plant.

There is also another cactus indigenous to Mexico, peyote (Lophophora Williamsii) that is the source of mescal button. It grows on the arid plateaus as far as Southwestern United States. This cactus has no spines, and the whole plant resembles a huge carrot, except for its button-studded top. Mescal buttons have strong narcotic properties that the native Indians use in ceremonies and rituals. Definitely Dragon Fruit is a far relative of this cactus.

In my research I also came across the problem of Prickly Pear (Opuntia inermis) which was introduced in Australia several years ago as an ornamental. It soon became wild and turned as pest invading pasture and farms. To control it, an insect (Cactoblastis cactorum) was introduced as a biological agent that slowly but progressively destroyed the plants hill after hill until whole fields were rid of this spiny cactus.

Going back to the Dragon Fruit, I consulted Dr. Domingo Tapiador, an FAO expert, and he showed me a picture of a pear cactus. It is similar to the Mexican Opuntia, and he is recommending it for the marginal areas. Showing him the familiar picture of the Dragon Fruit, he told me it can also thrive on arid wasteland as shown by Israel's experience.

Present research has succeeded in acclimatizing Dragon Fruit in the country. I saw hills of Dragon fruit in Amadeo, Cavite. Unfortunately it was off season and the plants did not have fruits. Locally grown dragon fruits sold in supermarkets are smaller than the imported ones. My research led me in meeting some friends from Israel which have lately started to export Dragon Fruit. It means that this forest plant has been successfully acclimatized as a desert crop, indeed an extreme adaptive transformation.

Dragon fruit, also known as Eden Fruit, was developed from a group of epiphytic cacti native to the forests of Mexico, and the rainforest of northern South America and Southeast Asia. Having an epiphytic habit and lacking soil roots, the plant obtains water and nutrients from falling organic debris caught by its tangled aerial roots. Thus it earned its name, Crawling Pitaya. Scientifically it isHylocereus undatus. Researchers found out that it requires one-tenth the water requirement of any known domesticated crop, and this is what makes it suitable as drought- resistant plant. But it took years and countless experiments to domesticate it. In Israel alone, some 1000 hybrids were developed from the wild species, and prospects of high yield and better tasting fruits are vigorously being pursued. Israel is now exporting dragon fruit.

Thanks to the unknown scientist (or native) who brought down Dragon Fruit from the wild. Thanks to the Vietnamese farmer who first commercialize its cultivation. To the Israelis who have found a new place for Dragon Fruit in the desert, to little Leo Carlo whose inquisitive mind put a green thumb to work, and to Cecille for bringing in the seed stock. Dragon Fruit and its kind may be the key to making our marginal lands productive while rehabilitating them at the same time.
x x x

The Living with Nature Handbook, AVR

Graffiti Art of Man and Nature

Graffiti Art of Man and Nature 

Discover the hidden messages of Graffiti Art.

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Mixing table at Vigan Paints Center, Metro Vigan. 
Residues of countless colors and color combinations 
through the years make a treasure of modern art.

I can't decipher anything - can you see?

neither figure nor view; appeal nor plea.

where's perspective, balance, harmony,

contrast, rhyme, rhythm, and poetry? 

this is new art, but people don't agree,

sans organization and lacking symmetry.

'til they saw the walls of Germany,

on both sides bearing the same plea, 

the biggest mural ever in human history;

its message: Egalite', Fraternite', Liberte,'

renaissance of the French' trilogy, 

a revolution in art too, called graffiti. 

                          

                         Litter of petals of Fire Tree in summer. UP Diliman QC 

Scientifically known as Delonix regia, the tree is virtually all flowers

throughout summer painting its own shade with red, orange,

brown and green in abstract and romantic combinations.

 

I felt blessed with living confetti,

as I stood under a big fire tree, 

fire red petals softly falling free

like in many a children's story

in a kingdom of magic and fantasy,

in nature's own art of graffiti;

with message no other but  from Thee: 

love, peace and unity.

Add caption

Graffiti art on the Berlin Wall before the re-unification of divided Germany, a plea on both sides of the wall for liberty, equality and fraternity, trilogy of the French Revolution in 1799, a century before our own Philippine Revolution from Spain.


Graffiti art harmoniously combines the art of nature and that of man 
into a beautiful scenery.

Ever changing faces of the cloud - a study of nature's graffiti art. (Internet)

Beauties with Nature

"A waterfall has a life of its own, it reflects the life of the world." avr

Dr Abe V Rotor 

Mudspring, Mt Makiling, Laguna 

Who says you can't go to the crater of a volcano?

Just at the rim of course, among the fumaroles.

tiny craters bubbling mud and spewing sulfur gas

and steam appearing like smoke and cloud;

here you are transported to the Ring of Fire 

linking the volcanoes of the world.

. Pinsal Falls, Sta Maria, Ilocos Sur 

A waterfall has a life of its own: it roars with habagat,

hisses with amihan, silent at summer's end,

only to laugh again with the first rain in April or May;

its life cycle depends on its watershed:

when undisturbed full and hale,

when destroyed dries up and dies. 

The waterfall reflects the life of the world. ~

Breathtaking Scenes of the Ilocos Coast (Santa, Ilocos Sur)

Breathtaking Scenes of the Ilocos Coast 

(Santa, Ilocos Sur)

Photos by Cecille R Rotor

Sunset view fits well on old Quirino Bridge which spans
the mighty Abra River, now a relic - a new bridge
(background) has been built in its place.

Cirrus cloud hovers over the badly eroded mountainside
of the western side of the Cordillera.

A fisherman on a raft is but a speck on the calm blue
waters of the Abra River as he prepares for home with
his meager catch.

Sunrise on Banaoang Pass unveils the newly constructed

bridge across the mighty Abra River. At the background
is the old Quirino Bridge which once withstood the ravages of
flood, strong wind and old age. The mountain too, has suffered
the same fate. In the absence of effective vegetation cover,
erosion has damaged the face of the mountain.
(Santa, Ilocos Sur). Summer 2010

Bathers take to the sea on Black Saturday(2010). White sand
beach of Soso Cove, Sta Maria, Ilocos Sur. At the background
is the once revered Soso ni Aran, now scarred by quarrying.

View from a precipice. Falling rocks pose danger to motorists,
but favor local fishing of octopus hiding beneath these rocks. 
Santa, Ilocos Sur.

Santa Paradise. A statue of the Virgin Mary gleams in the
morning sun atop a natural rock formation, creating an
aura of awe and peace for pilgrimage. The place however
has become more popular for picnic and motorists' stopover.

.

Traces of Angalo, the Friendly Giant

Traces of Angalo, the Friendly Giant

Dr Abe V Rotor

Pinsal Falls, acrylic AVR

Imagine how big Angalo, the legendary giant of the Ilocos region is. One foot of his left an imprint on a rock in Pinsal falls in Sta. Maria, and the other has its mark way up north, somewhere in Magsingal, two towns in Ilocos Sur some fifty kilometers apart. He must be a giant indeed surpassing the size of King Kong or Gulliver in Lilliput. I once stood in his huge footprint and what a minuscule I must have looked.

We ponder on Angalo’s power, we kids of our time. He is friendly and helpful in our mind, just as our old folks told us in many stories, wrapping him up into one gentle giant. He would stop flood, hold mountains apart, stood guard against the sea, roll the clouds and bring rain. And we kids would like to be as strong and brave, friendly and helpful just like him. How could we have idolized one whom we never saw, one who exists only in our imagination? It was a child’s gentle way of growing up into a giant.

Although legends live forever, Angalo and his kind, have been lost in the jungle of characters created on the screen and cyberspace. ~

Footprints of Angalo images from the Internet 

Defying the Sweet Call of Death

This article is dedicated to Mr Benito Rulloda for his heroism in saving the life of the author.
Dr Abe V Rotor

Detail of mural painted by the author from a scenario of death calling at the bottom
of the sea, as he saw it. Author's residence, San Vicente, Ilocos Sur, 2010

To really live you must almost die,
The song goes for the daring and bold;
It was night time then and I was young,
And the friendly moon was growing old.

Why should death come knocking on the door,
When peacetime is friendliest to the free?
And I, young and restless for adventure
Loafed under the stars and creaseless sea.

A line in hand waits the fish to bite
By an old Coleman's flickering light
That draws the small fish, then the prize
Catch - the biggest fish in all my life.

And it is! But neither fish nor prize
I got. I was on fire and fell overboard
Sucked by the current in the dead
Of the night and I prayed hard, Oh Lord!

And I kept swimming with all my might,
Strong in will and spirit and heart,
But time was running out, alone and weak
I saw death like a beautiful art.

I saw the sun of the night shining
Among corals and weeds and fishes;
I heard the mermaids sweetly singing,
And saw smiling, familiar faces.

Time's eternity, when all is gone.
Emptiness freedom without ceiling;
Beauty's transient and soon bygone,
When one gives in to death's calling.

A most familiar face met my eyes;
He raised my arm and we made it sure
To swim together, calm and trusting ,
To the anchored boat and to the shore.

That face was deep brown and roughly hewn,
Weathered through time by rain and sun;
An angel on earth and among the throng,
A simple man, sincere friend, unsung.

Who makes death meek, its sweet calling
Lying deep in the depth of the sea;
More than all, and biggest pearl to have,
He's the angel of humanity. ~

Based on a true story, an accident at San Fernando Bay, La Union in 1976. The hero and angel referred to is Benito Rulloda. The poem is dedicated to him for his valor and true friendship. With deep respect and gratitude. AVR.

Yes, you can write. Tips on How to be an Effective Writer

Yes, you can write. Tips on How to be an Effective Writer.
"Think first, then write, get to the point, and use familiar words."

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature - School on Blog

 
 The late Senator Edgardo Angara, AVR; Larry Henares (center) 

 Great Filipino Writers: Sedfrey Ordoñez, Ofelia Dimalanta, Hortencia Santos Sankore,
 Larry Francisco, Jose Garcia Villa; right, Nick Joaquin 

 400 Books of UST (1611-2011), International Book Fair, author and family with Bishop Bacani

 Left: Authors of Humanities Today with Radyo ng Bayan hosts; 

veteran dramatist and author, Fr James Reuter, SJ

You can be a newspaperman, radio broadcaster, TV anchorman, feature writer, columnist. You can be an author, and that's not a far dream.

If you are a student you will get higher grades for your reports and theme work. You will get a good rating for your research. You will be better understood of what you wish to communicate.

If you follow the following tips:
1. Think first, then write
2. Get to the point
3. Use familiar words
4. Omit verbal deadwood
5. Keep your sentences short
6. Shorten your paragraph
7. Use specific, concrete language
8. Prefer the simple to the complex
9. Be positive
10.Use the active voice
11.Write as you talk
12.Use adjectives sparingly
13.Revise and sharpen
14.Write to express, nmjot to impress
15.Odds and ends. Moderate use of words
16.Grammar, form and style
17.Respect culture and tradition
18.Morals and ethics
19.Read, read, read
20.Providence, the Unseen Hand

Good luck!

Reference: Journalism for Filipinos, Alito L Malinao

A Glimpse into the World of Insect (A Lesson in Entomology)

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog 

Lesson: Entomology - and other sciences - can be made more interesting through popular writing, translating the technical nature of science to the level of undertanding, and entertainment, particularly among children. The humanities treatment of this article, enriched by painting and photography, enhances general readership and appreciation of the subject. 

Garden - Haven of Insects
La Union Botanical Garden, Cadaclan, San Fernando, LU. On-the-spot painting by Abe V Rotor. Courtesy of Dr. Romualdo M del Rosario, Project Director. 

With increasing population, traffic and commerce all around a community, there is one place, a garden, that offers a wildlife sanctuary, specially insects. Here they live freely in the trees and shrubs, on annuals, inside the greenhouses, around the ponds, in loamy soil, and in the shade of buildings, and even visit homes seeking a suitable abode.

I have the feeling that of all animals, insects are the most adapted to the varied aspects of human activities, from the sound of hurrying feet to soft echoes of prayer and hymns – and loud music. When there are humans around, insects feed on morsels, paper and crayons, drink on fruit juices and beer. They aestivate in flower pots and boxes to tide with the harsh summer months. Or hibernate when the cold Siberian High comes. I think Pavlov’s conditioned learning works with insects as well.

Interestingly, as an entomologist, I have been monitoring the insects in some gardens, listing down a good number of species that include those not readily found elsewhere. These include a giant click beetle, a rhinoceros beetle with horns resembling a triceratops, Ficus pollinating wasp, leaf-curling thrips of ikmo, long horned grasshoppers, sulfur and Papilio butterflies.

Well, it is a fact that there is no escape from insects - good or bad ones. In terms of species, there are 7 insects out of 10 animal’s organisms of earth. Insects comprise 800,000 kinds and scientists estimate that their kin-lobster shrimps, spiders, ticks, centipedes, millipedes and scorpions if these were to be added, the phylum to which they all belongs, Phylum Arthropoda, would comprise 80 percent of all animals organisms. To compare, plants make up only one-half million species.
Daddy-long-legs, relative of the mosquito, quakes continuously when at rest by swaying its body back and forth in all directions, causing blurred view to a would-be attacker, and mesmerizing a potential prey. In the open, such optical illustion is enhanced by the shadow of the moving organism. Note the hind pair of wings reduced into halteres or balancer, characteristic of Dipterans. There is another kind of daddy-long-legs which belongs to Arachnida.

Antlion's traps. The predatory larva of this Neuropteran (Dendroleon obsoletum) lies buried at the bottom of the pit waiting for an unwary ant to fall and become its meal.

What secrets have insects in dominating the animal world, and surpassing the geologic history of dinosaurs, fishes, mammals and even some mollusks?

Well look at the ants, termites, and bees, the so-called social insects. Their caste system is so intact and strict that is was long regarded as a model of man’s quest for a perfect society. It inspired the building of highly autocratic empires like Egyptian and Roman Empires, and the monarchial Aztecs, Inca and Mayan civilizations.

Take the case of the butterflies and moths. Their active time is not only well defined - diurnal or nocturnal, but their food is highly specific to a plant or group of plants and their parts. Their life cycles allow either accelerated or suspended metamorphosis depending on the prevailing conditions of the environment, a feat no other animal can do more efficiently.

One time my students gathered around me by the ponds. There I explained to them the bizarre life of the dragonfly, once a contemporary of the dinosaur. Its young called nymph is a fearful hunter in water as the adult is in air. Apparently this is the reason on how it got its legendary name. I showed them the weapons of insects: the preying mantis carries a pair of ax-and-vise, a bee brandishes a poisonous dagger, while a tussock moth is cloaked with stinging barbs, a stink bug sprays corrosive acid on eyes or skin. The weevil has an auger snout, the grasshopper grins with shear-like mandibles, and the mosquito tucks in a long, contaminated needle.

We examined a beetle. Our thought brought us to the medieval age. A knight in full battle gear! Chitin, which makes up its armor called exoskeleton, has not been successfully copied in the laboratory. So with the light of the firefly, the most efficient of all lights on earth.

Wait until you hear this! Aphids, scale insects and some dipterans, are capable of paedogenesis, that is, the ability of immature insects to produce young even before reaching maturity!

Numbers, numbers, numbers. This is the secret of survival and dominance in the biological world. King Solomon is wise indeed in halting his army so that another army - an army of ants can pass. Killer ants and killer bees destroy anything that impedes their passage, including livestock - and human.

Invisibility is another key to insect survival and dominance. Have you examined the inside of leaf galls in santol, Ficus and ikmo? Well, you need a microscope to see the culprit - thrips or red mites. I demonstrated to my students how insects, being very small, can ride on the wind and current, find easy shelter, and are less subjected to injury when they fall. Also, insects require relatively less energy than bigger organisms do. All of these contribute to their persistence and worldwide distribution. Insects surely are among the ultimate survivors of a disaster.

In an article I wrote, A Night of Music in a Garden I described Nature’s musicians, the cricket and the katydid. While their sounds are music to many of us they are totally coded sounds similar to our communications. Cicadas, beetles, grasshopper, have their own “languages”, and in the case of termites and bees, their language is in the form of chemical signals known as pheromones. It is from them that we are learning pheromones in humans.

A Walking Stick, a perfect example of mimicry.

Without insects, we are certain to miss our sweetest sugar which is honey, the finest fabric which is silk, the mysterious fig (Smyrna fig) which is an exotic fruit. We would be having less and less of luscious fruits, succulent vegetables, the reddest dye, unique flavor in cheese, and most likely we will not have enough food to eat because insects are the chief pollinators, and main food of fishes and other animals. They are major links in the food chains and food webs, the columns of a biological Parthenon.

Without insects, the earth would be littered with dead bodies of plants and animals. Insects are the co-workers of decomposition with bacteria and fungi as they prepare for the life of the next generation by converting dead tissues into organic materials and ultimately into their inorganic forms. Together they help bridge the living and the non-living world.

A garden without bees and butterflies mirrors a scenario of the biblical fall. And if the other creatures in that garden strayed away from its beautiful premises as our first forebears began their wandering, they too, must have learned the true values of life, which they share to us today.

Beautiful is the verse from A Gnat and a Bee, an Aesop fables. To wit:

“The wretch who works not for his daily bread,
Sighs and complains, but ought not to be fed.
Think, when you see stout beggars on their stand,
The lazy are the locusts of the land.”

In The Ant and the Grasshopper, Aesop, acting like a father with a rod in hand, warns. He was referring to the happy-go-lucky grasshopper.

“Oh now, while health and vigour still remain,
Toil, toil, my lad, to purchase honest again!
Shun idleness! Shun pleasure’s tempting snare!
A youth of rebels breeds age of care.”

Ecologically insects are the barometer of the kind of environment we live in. A pristine environment attracts beneficial insects, while a spoilt one breeds pests and diseases.
Ficus pseudopalma and its exclusive wasp pollinator, a classical example of co-evolution. Only this species of wasp can pollinate and subsequently fertilize the introverted flower of this fig plant. Wasp is magnified 20x under a stereo microscope.

I have yet to see a firefly in a city garden. I remember an article in Renato Constantino’s series of publications, Issues Without Tears. Its title is, You don’t See Fireflies Anymore, a prophesy of doom, a second to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

Maybe. But I have not lost hope. Someday, a flicker in the night may yet come from a firefly and not from a car or cigarette - if only others will share with me the same optimism.
x x x

Your first work is a masterpiece

Dr Abe V Rotor

Old photograph of one of my earliest paintings. I never saw 

the painting again. (oil on plywood, 10" x 12") circa 1965

Don't throw away your early work 

if not in favor of your judgment

or of others; you are not the critic

nor they, but time and art,

for it could be your masterpiece,

the window of your soul,

its expression at the break of dawn,

when light is fresh and pure. 

and through the years to old age,

your work unfolds to the world,

the stirrings of your youth

seeking perfection in dream.

And imperfection is all it shows, 

a felled tree half buried lives on

in a hill of flowering weeds,  

ephemeral and beautiful.~ 

Always Be Prepared: Typhoon, Flood, Tsunami, Earthquake, and Other Disasters:

Always Be Prepared: Typhoon, Flood, Tsunami, Earthquake, and Other Disasters: 

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog

This article is an update of an earlier post on how we prepare, respond and recover, in times of calamity. Here is a checklist to follow.  Add to this list other necessary measures, particularly those that fit into the conditions of your place.

1. Keep informed and abreast – Radio, TV, Internet, Telephone, neighbors, cellphone. Social media in action.

 2.  Know at fingertips emergency numbers for disaster, fire, earthquake, police, NDCC, DECS, DOH, others. Be emergency response conscious of evacuation sites, fire exits, hospitals and clinics,

Secure appliances and items (furniture, documents, books, toys, etc) on second floor or on safe area. Move heavy objects away from harm’s way, these include apparador, potted plants, heavy tools, etc.

3. Prepare for power cut off. Set your freezer to the coldest temperature setting to minimize spoilage if the power is cut off. Have on hand flashlight, candles, batteries, etc. Charge cellphones and emergency lights. Have enough LPG during the emergency period. Keep a spare tank. In the province be sure you have sufficient stock of dry firewood.

4. Have your car, motorbike, ready for emergency. If water rises, secure them to higher ground.

Always see to it that they are at tiptop condition.

5. Check windows and doors, walls and roofs. Reinforce and seal them if necessary. Have handy towels, rags and mops. Seal leaking walls and roof even before the typhoon season.

6. Stay at the strongest and safest place in the house if the typhoon gets severe. Keep away from flood water, electrical outlet and wire, china wares and glass windows.

7. Seal off broken window or door with mattress or sofa over as typhoon gets severe. Secure it there with a heavy piece of furniture. Dra

w curtains across the windows to prevent against flying glass. Release trapped pressure by allowing it to escape opposite the direction of wind. My experience is to open a window just enough to maintain equilibrium.

8. Remember that a typhoon has an eye of calm. Don’t be deceived; it may appear that the typhoon has passed. It is only half of it. The winds then pick up again, now in opposite direction.

 
Typical flood scenes 
 
9. When the typhoon is finally through, check for hazards - broken glass, fallen trees and downed power lines, dangerous damaged structure.

10. Observe hygiene during and after a typhoon. Make sure your drinking water is not contaminated. Boil if necessary. Make sure that food properly prepared and stored. Avoid eating food from roadside vendors. Protect yourself from WILD, acronym for Waterborne, Influenza, Leptospirosis, and Diarrhea. Include Dengue, and other diseases.

11. Give priority attention to infants, children and the elderly. Provide them with whatever measures of safety and comfort. Keep them out of danger. Evacuate, if necessary, before the typhoon strikes.

12. Get rid of breeding grounds of mosquitoes, flies, rats and other vermin. Drain stagnant pools, dispose containers with water. Dispose garbage properly. Use pesticide only if necessary. Application of insecticide, rodenticide, and fumigant needs expert’s supervision.

13. Protect yourself from toxic waste if you are living in an industrial center, these include toxic metals (mercury, lead, cadmium), hydrocarbon compounds, pesticide residues, oil spills.

14. Wear protective clothing like boots when wading in flood water, raincoat, jacket, had hard during clearing and construction, gloves, etc. Be careful with leptospirosis, a disease acquired from rat waste through flood water.

15. Protect yourself from road accidents. Chances are higher during and after a calamity because of fallen trees and poles, damaged and slippery roads, non-functioning traffic lights, obstructions of all sorts.

  
16. Have your damaged vehicle repaired and cleaned as soon as possible to prevent further damage, specially those submerged in flood. So with other appliances – refrigerators, TV sets, furniture, etc.

17. Have an adequate supply of food and water for the foreseeable period of emergency. No panic buying, please. 

18. Medicine cabinet, first aid kit.  Check regularly and replenish the needed medical supplies, principally for the treatment of common ailments, and victims of  accidents.

19. Protect your home from burglars (akyat bahay).  Don't fall unwary victim to rogues.  Bad elements of society usually take advantage on the hopeless, like refugees in a calamity. 

20. Keep in touch with loved ones, relatives, friends to relieve anxiety. It is timely to text some kind words to the the infirmed, lonely, aged.  Offer whatever help you can extend. These are times to exercise neighborliness in action.~

Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda), the strongest storm to make landfall in recorded history, flattened coconut trees like match sticks. 2012

Deadliest Cyclones

Rank	Storm	Dates of impact	Deaths
1	September 1881 typhoon	1881, September 27	20,000
2	Haiyan/Yolanda 2013	2013, November 7–8	6,241
3	Thelma/Uring 1991	1991, November 4–7	5,101]
4	Bopha/Pablo 2012	2012, December 2–9	1,901
5	Angela Typhoon	1867, September 22	1,800
6	Winnie 2004	2004, November 27–29	1,593
7	October 1897 Typhoon	1897, October 7	1,500
8	Ike/Nitang 1984	1984, September 3–6	1,492
9	Fengshen/Frank 2008	2008, June 20–23	1,410
10	Durian/Reming 2006	2006, November 29-December 1	1,399

       Typhoon Lando - Oct 22-28, 2015 - In terms of sheer strength and scope of destruction, Typhoon Lando (international name: Koppu) was the worst storm to hit the Philippines, with USD11 billion loss, 464 death.

Most destructive

Rank	Name	Year	PHP	USD
1	Haiyan (Yolanda)	2013	89.6 billion	2.02 billion
2	Bopha (Pablo)	2012	42.2 billion	1.04 billion
3	Rammasun (Glenda)	2014	38.6 billion	871 million
4	Parma (Pepeng)	2009	27.3 billion	608 million
5	Nesat (Pedring)	2011	15 billion	333 million
6	Fengshen (Frank)	2008	13.5 billion	301 million
7	Megi (Juan)	2010	11 billion	255 million
8	Ketsana (Ondoy)	2009	11 billion	244 million
9	Mike (Ruping)	1990	10.8 billion	241 million
10	Angela (Rosing)	1995	10.8 billion	241 million

Indian Ocean Tsunami, Dec 26, 2004 (Christmas Tsunami)
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurred  on 26 December with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia resulting a disastrous tsunami killing 230,000 people in 14 countries, and inundating coastal communities with waves up to 30 metres (100 ft) high. Hardest hit are Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. With a magnitude of  9.1–9.3, it is the third-largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph.  Photo of a village in Sumatra

The earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 centimetre (0.4 inches) and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska. A worldwide humanitarian response amounted to US$14 billion in humanitarian aid.

Fukushima Japan Tsunami,  March 11, 2011

It was a city known for its beautiful beaches and boasts one of the longest cherry blossom tree tunnels in Japan. But after a tsunami and a nuclear disaster both struck in the space of 12 months, Tomioka near Fukushima was turned into a ghost city.

More than 15,000 residents living in 6,000 houses were forced to evacuate in March 2011 because of safety fears concerning dangerous radiation levels. Three years on, schools and business are still prevented from returning while parks, playgrounds, roads and the city's train station have been left covered in overgrown grass.

A total of 300,000 people have been evacuated from the east coast of the country since the disasters and 15,884 have died. (Photo shows a boat left on a highway for three years on the outskirts of the deserted city, which was evacuated because of radiation fears following the nuclear disaster.)

Acknowledgement: Internet, Wikipedia