Earthquake drill to show Mandaue’s rescue capabilities

Lapu-Lapu emergency responders show their capability on handling situations brought about by an earthquake during the nationwide simultaneous earthquake drill last June 20, 2019. | CDN Digital file photo

It will be Mandaue City emergency responders turn to show their capability on handling emergencies brought about by an earthquake.

This will happen on March 12, 2020 at the Mandaue City Sports Complex after the Office of the Civil Defense in Central Visayas (OCD-7) chose Mandaue City as its pilot area for their quarterly Nationwide Simultaneous Earthquake Drill (NSED) on that date.

NSED is a program implemented every quarter by OCD and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).

In June last year, it was the Lapu-Lapu City emergency responders, who got to showcase their capability in handling emergencies during earthquakes.

Read more: Emergency responders showcase capability in earthquake drill in Lapu-Lapu

Earthquake drill pilot area

This year it will be Mandaue City’s turn.

Riza Joy Hernandez, OCD-7 information officer, said that for the first quarter of the year, they had selected the city government of Mandaue as the pilot area of the activity.

She said Mandaue City was chosen because the city was densely populated, highly urbanized and had a lot of high-rise buildings.

She said with these three conditions, this area would be greatly affected if ever an earthquake would hit the city.

It would also be possible that a large number of people would be affected if an earthquake would happen.

Duck, Cover, Hold

Hernandez encouraged participants to take the activity seriously to raise awareness and to save more lives if the public would only know what to do during such calamity such as the practice of “Duck, Cover, and Hold.”

“As of the moment, the awareness of the public in Central Visayas regarding earthquake preparedness is only at 75 percent,” Hernandez said.

Mandaue City Sports Complex

Karlo Cabahug, Mandaue City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) planning officer, said that the venue for the NSED is the Mandaue City Sports Complex.

“We have selected the Mandaue City Sports Complex, due to presence of several offices in that facility as well as the Mandaue City College is situated in that area,” Cabahug said.

Cabahug said that around 500 employees of the city and students would participate in the activity on March 12, at around 2:00 p.m.

He also admitted that there would be a lot of things that they would still need to improve on in preparing the city’s constituents in calamities such as an earthquake./dbs