ON FRIDAY night, the people of Iloilo, city and province went to their sleep thinking it was an ordinary rainy day. The weather forecast from PAG-ASA says typhoon Frank has just made a landfall in Samar. Late night news plotted the pathway of Frank showing it will proceed to Bicol from Samar then made headway to the northern part of Luzon. An earlier weather bulletin even projected Frank will not make any landfall at all, indicating it will exit in the Pacific near northern Luzon.

Thus, Saturday morning, Ilonggos were surprised to wake up finding water under their beds, with strong wind and rains battering their houses. Unable to make sense what is going on, many opened their radios only to discover electric power is gone. Only those with battery-powered transistor radios came to know what is happening. Frank changed course and the city and province of Iloilo is on its direct path.

By the time the entire island of Panay figured out the situation, Frank is already unleashing its 170 km per hour wind, dumping heavy rains that lasted for more than twelve hours. Many residents in the city and province of Iloilo climbed to rooftops and trees to escape rampaging water as they cried for help. It was only then that Ilonggos became aware of the calamity that had befallen on them.

Floods, never seen before in the history of Iloilo submerged the city and province. Water rose very fast in many areas people hardly had the time to save their belongings. In a matter of fifteen to twenty minutes, houses were already under water, raising eight to ten feet high. Those with no second floors clambered to their rooftops and stayed there for twelve to twenty-fours hours, under strong winds and rain.

Frantic calls for help swamped radio stations and government agencies. Unprepared for the calamity, their lame response barely made a difference. When it was over, the city and province of Iloilo was unimaginably devastated.

In Region 6, 498 were dead and 263 missing. The figure is expected to rise as reports started to trickle in from far-flung areas. Power and communication were cut off, and as of this writing, only 46% of Panay had electricity. Damage to infrastructure, livelihood and agriculture is expected to reach billions of pesos (Php5.5 billion according to recent estimates).

As Ilonggos pick up the pieces and slowly recover from the calamity, valuable lessons are learned along the way. The tragedy for one exposed the unpreparedness of the government – province, city and municipalities, in disaster management. As cries for assistance deluge government units, they were helpless.

One disaster office had no disaster equipments except a single rope. With no resources to use, all that local government units can do is listen to frantic cries and calls and watch as people were being swept away. Some local executives could only cry as they witness their constituents plunged to their deaths.

Disaster preparedness is one neglected area by government units. Usually it takes a tragedy for them to move and do something about the situation. Do not wait for another tragedy to strike before moving. Today more than ever disaster preparedness of the community should be given top priority. Frank was not the first or the last typhoon to hit the region. Rainy season has just started.

While what happened was primarily caused by the force of nature, human factor could have aggravated the situation. Areas never flooded before were inundated by water. Most of Panay’s forest cover is gone. When heavy rain occur especially in the mountainous part of the island, water immediately rush to the slopes as there were no more trees to hold them.

Flooding is already a perennial problem in the city of Iloilo but the magnitude of the recent flood is a wake up call on the role of human factor in this calamity. If Panay had sufficient forest cover, the flooding would not have been this worst. Reports of illegal logging should be investigated.

Wanton greed and irresponsibility destroyed whatever is left of Panay’s forest cover and people living in low lying areas are paying the highest price for this. This time stronger effort must be done to prevent the ultimate destruction of the remaining forest and expanding them. Environmental consciousness must be ingrained in the minds of the people. When nature takes its revenge, everyone is a victim.

In every aftermath of a tragedy, problems and solutions always get attention but as time passes by, they are buried and forgotten until the next calamity. This must not be allowed to happen. If the people remain callous, negligent and irresponsible tragedy of greater scale will strike the city and province of Iloilo in the future. Let us not wait for it to happen. Now is the time to get our act together.

One Response to “Postscript to tragedy”

• 1
  nangtud
  June 29th, 2008 19:54

  in nature there is no right or wrong, only consequences!
  Typhoon Frank is just a preview of the consequences of OUR actions

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