Usapang Bayan 3rd Session, 2 to 3 pm, October 25, 2024 Friday
Disaster Preparedness, Response, Recovery
- and Resolution
(Handa, Laban, Bangon - at Pagbago)
Ms Melly C Tenorio, host, and Dr Abe V Rotor, guest
Review and Reference Articles
Part 1 - Always Be Prepared: Typhoon, Flood, Tsunami,
Earthquake, and Other Disasters
Part 2 - Thirteen (13) Frankenstein monsters roaming in our midst
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Recently, in the Philippines, super typhoon 'Carina' damaged 45 schools, disrupted school opening. In the previous school year, at least 32 teaching days or a month’s worth of class instruction were lost due to climate-related events, including the soaring temperatures that scorched the Philippines during the dry season.
In Afghanistan, a series of earthquakes on October 7, 2023, killed 2,400 people. Several hundreds were reported missing, 1,714 houses destroyed, and 11,066 people left homeless.
On September 8, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck central Morocco, with more than 3,000 people confirmed dead, and thousands injured. The disaster was Morocco’s most powerful earthquake in more than a century and its deadliest since 1960
More than 33,000 people have died across Turkey and Syria since a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6, 2023.* The quake is one of the strongest to hit the region in more than 100 years. Thousands of buildings collapsed.
On September 8, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck central Morocco, with more than 3,000 people confirmed dead, and thousands injured. The disaster was Morocco’s most powerful earthquake in more than a century and its deadliest since 1960
More than 33,000 people have died across Turkey and Syria since a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6, 2023.* The quake is one of the strongest to hit the region in more than 100 years. Thousands of buildings collapsed.
Typical flood scenes
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.
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.
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.
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
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*Do you believe in miracles?
A 10-year-old girl named Cudi was rescued after spending 147 hours trapped under rubble in southern Turkey’s Hatay province. In the same region, a 35-year-old survivor identified as Mustafa Sarıgül was freed from the ruins of a six-story apartment building after 149 hours.
Part 2 - Thirteen (13) Frankenstein monsters
roaming in our midst
"The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is the defining global health crisis of our time and the greatest challenge we have faced since World War Two."
Anyone who has read Frankenstein cannot forget the frightful scenario of a monster created in the laboratory that eventually turned against his master and terrorized the world - a reminder of the unpredictable consequences of science-on-the-loose. We have revived the Frankenstein monster in many forms, such as these.
1. The invention of the atomic bomb and its subsequent progeny - hydrogen bomb, neutron bomb and cobalt bomb - that are far more deadly and destructive, and their stockpiling into a power keg that still exist today even after the Cold War has ended in 1989.
Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, 2011
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Hiroshima atomic bombing, and aftermath, 1945
Holocaust, Nazi Concentration Camp in Auschwitz,1944
2. Medical breakthroughs in saving lives and extending life span contribute to the population explosion and demographic imbalance where societies are burdened by too many young who are unproductive and highly dependent, and elderly group, with increasing healthcare-dependent members.3. Organ transplantation and replacement which is leading us farther and farther to a new frontier called bionics; a combination of the rational being and the robot, natural and artificial intelligence.4. Genetically modified organisms (GMO) whereby it is possible to combine genes of organisms outside their kind, irrespective of species - or kingdom, for that matter. Bt Corn carries the gene protein of a bacterium - Bacillius thuringiensis - that parasitizes caterpillars that feed on corn crop. New strange life variations are sprouting defying identity and classification. They are nameless like the monster created by Frankenstein.
2. Medical breakthroughs in saving lives and extending life span contribute to the population explosion and demographic imbalance where societies are burdened by too many young who are unproductive and highly dependent, and elderly group, with increasing healthcare-dependent members.3. Organ transplantation and replacement which is leading us farther and farther to a new frontier called bionics; a combination of the rational being and the robot, natural and artificial intelligence.4. Genetically modified organisms (GMO) whereby it is possible to combine genes of organisms outside their kind, irrespective of species - or kingdom, for that matter. Bt Corn carries the gene protein of a bacterium - Bacillius thuringiensis - that parasitizes caterpillars that feed on corn crop. New strange life variations are sprouting defying identity and classification. They are nameless like the monster created by Frankenstein.
5. Mega-industrialization that has resulted not only in the demise of natural environments (ecosystems) and many species of organisms, but the destruction of the ozone layer and the gradual and steady buildup of atmospheric gases and temperature known as global warming. Global warming has alarming effects in changing climate patterns worldwide, spawning more frequent and more destructive force majeure from drought to flood to typhoons and tornadoes.
6. Urbanization leading to the growth of megacities which continue to destroy the homeostasis of rural-urban relationship, spawning poverty and leading to the degradation of human life at the source of migration on one hand, and at the burgeoning centers on the other.
7. Population explosion setting a record of 7.7 billion people today and doubling in less than fifty years if left unchecked - indeed a grim reminder of the ghost of Malthus two hundred years ago (Malthusian Theory), and a proof that the natural laws that govern survival has been radically changed. (Internet photos)
8. Consumerism on which capitalism flourishes in the guise of progress and the good life, but in effect creates massive pollution, imbalance of the economy of nations, dividing them into power-wealth categories, and have and have-not, loss of values, and abusive exploitation of resources at the expense of Planet Earth.
9. Gold rush syndrome resulting in the Tragedy of the Commons, a principle that is based on Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale, a story that illustrates that greediness and wanton destruction has always a tragic end, as evidenced today by the declining fish catch in the ocean, dwindling freshwater supply, logged over forests, spent farms and pastures, near exhaustion of fossil fuels, and the like.
10. While ecumenism bridges religions, cultism is divisive and segregative. There is a rise of the so-called hybrid religions which have lost their dogmatic identities, and are gaining popularity as a kind of religious liberation. On the other hand, more and more people around the world are drawn into the world of nones (people who have lost faith in organized religions) - if not the atheism, particularly those overwhelmed by the influence of postmodern living.
7. Population explosion setting a record of 7.7 billion people today and doubling in less than fifty years if left unchecked - indeed a grim reminder of the ghost of Malthus two hundred years ago (Malthusian Theory), and a proof that the natural laws that govern survival has been radically changed. (Internet photos)
8. Consumerism on which capitalism flourishes in the guise of progress and the good life, but in effect creates massive pollution, imbalance of the economy of nations, dividing them into power-wealth categories, and have and have-not, loss of values, and abusive exploitation of resources at the expense of Planet Earth.
9. Gold rush syndrome resulting in the Tragedy of the Commons, a principle that is based on Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale, a story that illustrates that greediness and wanton destruction has always a tragic end, as evidenced today by the declining fish catch in the ocean, dwindling freshwater supply, logged over forests, spent farms and pastures, near exhaustion of fossil fuels, and the like.
10. While ecumenism bridges religions, cultism is divisive and segregative. There is a rise of the so-called hybrid religions which have lost their dogmatic identities, and are gaining popularity as a kind of religious liberation. On the other hand, more and more people around the world are drawn into the world of nones (people who have lost faith in organized religions) - if not the atheism, particularly those overwhelmed by the influence of postmodern living.
11. Substance Abuse comprises of prohibited drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
12. Corona Virus Pandemic (COVID-19)
Coronavirus pandemic continues to grip the world
"I don't believe that this infection really is being transmitted in waves. It's more like a coronavirus forest fire where in fact, it just burns, burns and burns. But then as soon as you let up the break, then it all comes back again." CBS News, Oct 13, 2020
13. Massive pollution worldwide on land , water and air as a result of population explosion, rapid industrialization, rise of megacities, destructive agriculture, unabated affluence, among other factors in the way we live today in a postmodern world, seemingly untenable by present governance and management.
Industrialization greatly contributes to climate change, acid rain and health problems; plastics being non-biodegradable "survives the age of the earth."
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“One of the first conditions of happiness is that the link between man and nature shall not be broken.” —Leo Tolstoy
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These 13 attributes of a modern Frankenstein haunt modern man and his society today exacerbated by his aim at globalization. The shrinking of the planet into a global village so to speak, through scientific breakthroughs, expansion of commerce and industry, opening of new frontiers of human settlement and habitation which sooner or later include the building of cities under the sea and in space, and the proliferation of multimedia making information accessible anywhere in any place of the globe - all these make the avenging monster closer to his creator, and therefore making him vulnerable to its evil intent. Such is the story of Mary Shelley's fiction that has a tragic ending - the destruction of both monster which never bore a name, and its creator - the young genius, Frankenstein. ~
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