By Perla Lena/PNA
ILOILO CITY — All eyes will be in Iloilo City this February 21 as this highly urbanized city was chosen, upon the recommendation of the Philippine Institute for Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), as national pilot for the nationwide simultaneous earthquake drill (NSED).
Donna Magno, head of the Iloilo City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) on Wednesday said Phivolcs “wanted to raise the awareness of the public regarding the frequency” of the occurrence of big events.
It has been more than a century since the earthquake named “Lady Kaykay” struck the city leaving huge devastation.
“Big events like that have recurring period. The public has to know what has happened in the past so that we can keep on preparing for a possible scenario like that of ‘Lady Kaykay’,” she said.
Magno said that the drill aims not just to raise public awareness but showcase as well as what Iloilo City has in terms of preparedness.
The scenario will have an 8.2 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter in Anini-y, Antique. With the magnitude, ground shaking is expected.
There will be five areas chosen for the drill to showcase the interoperability of concerned agencies during emergencies.
The first site will be at Barangay Sto. Nino Sur, a coastal barangay in Arevalo district. In this area, the relationship or how the academe and the barangay will work together will be tested.
The second site is SM City to test how prepared the mall and how is it going to assist the tenants.
The third site is at Megaworld, which most often plays host to national and international events.
“We want to know how ready Megaworld is to respond to devastating earthquakes. We would like to highlight the readiness of the incident management team, responders and inter-operability during complicated situations,” she said.
The last two sites are the Iloilo Mission Hospital and the Iloilo City Hall.
From these five sites, the CDRRMO expects the participation of some 8,000 individuals.
However, while there are pilot sites, other areas and barangays will be encouraged to also participate, she added.
Meantime, Magno said that with the frequent conduct of drills, Ilonggos can almost perform the “duck, cover and hold”. Also, business sector has been requesting them for the conduct of drills.
She added that in terms of capability, Iloilo City has a lot or responder organizations that it can tap.
However, if the earthquake will have tsunami and liquefaction as after effects then “it’s a different story”.
“At least we are doing something to prepare because with 8.2 we still have a lot to prepare,” she added.
