Calamity readiness

The devastating effects of typhoons Ondoy (a.k.a. Ketsana internationally) and Pepeng, specifically the raging floods it brought to many cities in Manila as well as in Rizal, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Baguio City drastically and dramatically shifted many Filipino parents’ attention to calamity readiness.

As experienced, the Philippine government was caught helpless and the people could not rely much on its government to save them as the whole country relied mainly on the Chinook helicopters and rubber boats that the US government lent.  Without foreign help, many more must have lost their lives as tens and thousands of Filipinos tragically waited for help on their rooftops.  Still, many waited for their death as they were swept.  With the given scenarios survival in such a calamity has become a family obligation.

For the affluent few, this reality must have pushed a move to relocate and shop for a new house or condominium, a car, a speedboat, clothes, appliances and the like.  Those who don’t know how to swim must have been convinced to take swimming lessons in a blink.  Everything’s possible because they can afford to prepare for a most likely repetition.

Meanwhile, for the ordinary families, the tragedy must have instilled a sense of preparedness but relocation nor shopping are not their best options.  Instead, they must be back to their houses to clean the mess and if there’s shopping to be done, it would be for the most necessary things only.

Going down the ladder, those who barely make ends meet must have been more traumatized than anyone else.  What makes that worse is the fact that all they could do is remain in evacuation centers and wait for help until supplies last.  The worst scenario would be to see them going back to their places to rebuild their houses beside riverbanks and underneath bridges because they really have nowhere else to go.

Whatever conditions the distraught families face after the the calamities, which turned out to be tragedies, there is only one reality that prevails — calamity readiness means going back to the simple life thirty-something rural-born citizens like me had in the countryside.  It is high time for parents like me to bring the past back and teach the younger generation to plant trees, use energy wisely and save the planet in the process.