BACOLOD City – The city government rated 6 out of 10 in terms of preparedness to an earthquake, according to the Office of Civil Defense (OCD) Region 6.
Some employees lacked sufficient knowledge on what to do during the calamity while city hall did not have a fully functional alarm system to alert the workers, an OCD official said.
A drill was held at the Bacolod City Government Center on Thursday as part of a nationwide exercise aimed at checking readiness to earthquakes.
The employees evacuated city hall while local emergency first responders acted on situations that simulated actual emergencies.
Maria Aletha Nogra, acting chief of the OCD Region 6 Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Division, noted the lack of a spokesperson giving information on the current emergency.
While the evacuation was generally “orderly,” some workers ran to the exits instead of seeking shelter under desks while the mock earthquake was taking place, Nogra said.
She also noticed that city hall’s emergency alarms were “not well-maintained.” She said these “must be operational at all times.”
On the other hand, the city government had the “right manpower and equipment” to handle an earthquake emergency, Nogra said.
Nogra recommended that the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) train city hall employees on disaster response and preparedness.
CDRRMO cluster head Joemarie Vargas agreed with Nogra, saying some of the employees panicked while others had “no sense of emergency.”
The drill still showed that the city government is equipped, and the police officers, medics and firefighters knowledgeable of their primary tasks, Vargas said.
But during a real earthquake emergency, the public should expect that only 50 percent of the first responders would be able to arrive at the scene, said the local official.
Vargas also took note of the deficiency in the emergency alarm system.
He said he would forward the evaluation of the drill to City Administrator John Orola./PN
