Had it rained one more day last week, it would have been a tragic Thursday or Friday for many communities in Negros Oriental, especially from Siaton down to Bayawan City.
Monsoon rains brought about by the super typhoon that skirted the northern part of the Philippines continuously poured over Negros Island. This caused many rivers to rise beyond their normal levels, triggered a landslide in Bayawan City, and inconvenienced thousands of travellers by way of flight cancellations.
Perhaps by now, all these seminars and trainings on Disaster Risk Reduction have done all of us some good. Many of us already know to be watchful of environmental signs that lead to disaster. Our rivers have the markings telling people when to evacuate. We are also ready in case of preemptive evacuation.
But while our local government units prepare to respond to calamities, the public should also do its share by taking the necessary precautions to avoid being victims themselves. This they can do by living away from danger zones, such as riverbanks and landslide-prone areas. No one wants to undergo near-death experiences, but by ignoring simple safety rules, so many people not only go through NDEs but actually get killed in the process.
We have experienced several bad storms these past few years and we have seen how these storms take a different course from weather predictions. The least we can do is to prepare for the worst case scenario.
There’s no such thing as being over prepared.
