by Klaus Döring
Wow, wow, wow. Yes, tropical storm “Ondoy” left a lot of people dead and a lot more homeless and without business. While monitoring the news a couple of days ago, I honestly felt helpless and really sad. The stream of reports and text messages from people crying for help or to be rescued hurt me. And not only me… .
Since that time up to now I am still waiting for a sight of life of people – during that time somehow and somewhere stuck in Manila or its surroundings. We could have been also victims, although in Davao and its surroundings the rain wasn’t that hard. And, we are indeed lucky and blessed: storms like “Ondoy” have no chance to threatrn us in such a way because we are not part of the typhoon belt.
Many critics asked questions like this: “Where was the government amid the calamity?” STAR columnist Jarius Bondoc wrote: “Public despair was explicable. The worst rains in Luzon’s post-war history had caught national officials flat-footed.”
The people and friends with whom I was in contact by exchanging text messages, told me that services clearly broke down. Police were nowhere or almost never in sight. Homes were swept away, flights were cancelled, millions of residents felt being left alone by the authorities.
Anyway, we here in Davao and in other parts of Mindanao can also be hit by natural disasters. We got flashfloods more then enough. How about earthquakes? Do we have good management disaster and rescue programs?
If polluted waterways have not been cleaned up or drainage systems are too old and decrepit or many homes collapsed due to the construction of poor structural foundations – then please tell me: who could be blamed? Surely not those citizens, who live somewhere under a bridge or on the riverside… .
There are reports that because of the destruction caused by “Ondoy” the storm’s name would be deleted from the list of codenames of future typhoons that will hit the Philippines. Pagasa had already registered the names of storms that will hit the country until 2016. Are Philippine authorities also prepared for upcoming natural disasters?
Comments? Suggestions? Questions? Feel free to email me to doringklaus@gmail.com.
