The evacuation center in Batangas. | Photo courtesy of Cebu City Public Information Office
CEBU CITY, Philippines—Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said he wants the evacuation centers in the city improved following the disasters affecting various provinces in the country.
Since the last few weeks of 2019 up until January 22, 2020, the country has suffered from earthquakes in Mindanao, a typhoon in the Visayas, and a volcanic eruption in Luzon.
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In the first two weeks of January 2020, three barangays in the city have also been placed under state of calamity because of fires displacing hundreds of families.
Labella said there will always be a risk of disaster.
“We already have the structures, the sports complex of barangays. What we need is to improve them,” said the mayor in a phone interview with CDN Digital.
Labella said he will have all barangay gyms equipped with basic disaster needs such as tarps and tents to be immediately used when disaster strikes.
This is just one way to be prepared and the mayor said the city needs to keep improving its disaster preparedness to avoid being caught off guard.
Disaster preparedness, he says, must begin in the barangays, so that risk is already managed from the roots in the community. /bmjo