It was, by many accounts, unthinkable.
Tropical storm Sendong claimed 38 lives in Negros Oriental, and caused damage to infrastructure amounting to hundreds of millions. Victims also lost millions in personal belongings.
The ironic thing is that all these happened even while most of Negors Oriental was only under Storm Signal No. 1.
The culprit was the flood. Water that was two storeys high came rushing down the rivers in one instant, sweeping away homes and people from the riverbanks. In some instances, the rivers found new routes, and rushed into the homes of many people who thought they were out of harm’s way.
While the tragedy may have been unthinkable, it was all avoidable.
We could have saved everyone the trouble by preventing people from living by the riverbanks or on dry river beds.
And having failed in doing that, we could also have evacuated the people living in these disaster-prone areas.
The example shown by the municipality of Amlan is something that all local government units should emulate.
Amlan has trained people manning their disaster management teams down to the barangay level. At the first sign of a calamity, the Amlan disaster management teams go on alert, and order evacuations from hazard-prone sites, with a zero-casualty goal.
Now, the challenge is to move people out of the dangerous areas. As President Aquino had warned, this will be a test of the political will of the mayors, especially that these people who insist on living in hazardous sites will dangle their votes come election time.
These are challenges that elected officials face. Making popular decisions is easy, but it may not be the best thing to do.
