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Prepare Today, Survive Tomorrow:

Disaster Resilience Towards Genuine Change

People sometimes overlook the fact that we only have one life. Our life is

precious so if we acquire life, we should keep it in a box and protect it until such time

comes that we have to let it go. We can’t control some things that come to our way,

but we can reduce the severity of its effects. Howard Ruff once said, “It wasn’t raining

when Noah built the ark.” What could it mean? Of course, it means that we don’t

prepare when it already happens. We prepare before it happens. Preparing is a

necessity and shouldn’t be overlooked for there is the fact that we have a life to live.

Many of us would just worry about the present, what to eat, what to wear, and

where to live for the day. There is nothing wrong with that mindset, but we should also

be aware that anything could happen at any time. Some of us are nonchalant towards

the dangers of the world. Although they say that worrying too much about stuff is

exhausting, we should still keep in mind that there are things that you need to be

concerned with. People panic when something out of the blue happens. That is not an

ideal reaction. At every symposium about disaster risk reduction and resilience, they

always teach us to stay calm. During a symposium held at our school last year, one of

the speakers told us, “We should stay calm, analyze the situation, stay rational, and

act.” They are truly wise words left to us. What has to be done is to apply them. Most

of the time, people listening to these symposiums would just yawn and be ignorant.

They do not know the value of learning such things to survive. We should learn how

to listen in order to acquire knowledge. When you acquire knowledge, you should
apply it. When you apply it, you will survive. Being prepared against these calamities

means you know how to reduce the damage it will cause you. First and foremost, you

should put some questions in your mind and get the right answer. How often will these

disasters strike? What kind of disasters will strike? How much damage will it cost? The

answers to these questions mostly depend on the location of your residence. You can

ask officials about this, and once you get the answers, you will know how and what to

prepare for. In our country’s case, we are located at the seismic Ring of Fire, so we

get more than our fair share of natural disasters. The most common ones are

earthquakes and typhoons. As you noticed, the DRRM conducts simultaneous

earthquake drills most often. That is because it happens often in our country. They

also give warnings and counter measurements for typhoons. The problem is within the

people. Some of us are stubborn and think, “What could possibly go wrong?” This

statement only further shows that we respond poorly over natural disasters. Japan is

a country known for having great response to natural disasters. They prepare

beforehand, and before you know it, they have already recovered. This says a lot to

their fast economic growth and successful upbringing. If we were to do the same thing,

our country will be a much better place to live in. I was a victim of Super Typhoon

Haiyan. I experienced it firsthand and learned what to do. Our family prepared a first

aid kit, food supply, clothing and evacuated in a safer place. We went to my uncle’s

residence and early at the morning, you could already hear the strong howls of the

wind. My parents warned our neighbors that the typhoon was too strong and a storm

surge might occur, yet none of them believed them and just stayed at our subdivision.

At our uncle’s residence, the storm surge was about 2 meters deep. My uncle’s

residence was further from the sea. My family’s residence was only a few meters away

from it. Turns out, people did not know that behind the subdivision is a fish pond and
beside the fish pond is the sea. Walls were built behind our subdivision and people

who lived there didn’t go outside too often. Maybe they weren’t aware, but it was still

their responsibility to know the structure and formation of their location. Knowing this,

I thought to myself, “The flood here is already deep, what more if it was in our

subdivision. I’m thankful we decided to not stay there.” Two days after the typhoon, I

was informed that our house was completely destroyed, people had nowhere to live,

and more than a thousand were found dead. Year of 2013, when the typhoon struck

our city, a lot of damage was caused. People were unprepared because they weren’t

expecting the worst. In times of natural disasters, we should always be prepared for

the worst. From what I remember, the Astrodome was used as an evacuation center.

That wasn’t a very intelligent idea. News spread that many evacuees from the

Astrodome Center were declared dead and injured. In case you weren’t aware, the

Astrodome is located right beside the sea. Although the Astrodome is larger and taller

than some buildings, you still can’t ignore the fact that it was right beside the sea.

Ignorance played a crucial role for the casualties to be that many. Hopefully, people

would learn from this mistake and make better decisions in the future. A few years

ago, I have noticed that people had a more panicked reaction to earthquakes than

now. This is the result of the simultaneous earthquake drills and efforts of the DRRM

to save our population. Why did the reactions become better? Let’s take for example

a quiz you didn’t study for. Naturally, you would face palm and realize that you are

going to end up with a failing score. A person who studied for that quiz would just laugh

it off and eventually get a passing score. The same thing applies to earthquakes. If

you aren’t prepared, expect the consequences. If you’re prepared, then good job to

you. Japan was once struck by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake, but a few years later,

they already recovered. Why did this happen? It is because of their resilience.
Resilience is another thing apart from being prepared, but they are connected. Being

prepared results to having more resilience. Preparedness is how you respond before,

and being resilient is how you respond after. If you prepare beforehand, then there will

be lesser damage to attend to. In some countries, their buildings are made to withstand

the worst of the worst. In some reports, it is said that most of our country’s buildings

are bound to collapse if a larger scale disaster would happen. I hope the people and

the government would help each other in order to find a solution for this problem.

Otherwise, we would have to face an even bigger problem. Surely, we made mistakes,

but I hope we learned from these and further improve our situation. Some may ask,

what does knowledge have to do about surviving these disasters? Knowledge is a

basic necessity for survival. Humans have survived through knowledge. The more you

know, the better life gets. People have already said this countless of times. They say

“knowledge is power.” It really is. We lived our life through knowing. We saved

ourselves through knowing.

Now, you would ask yourself, what does being prepared and being resilient

when disasters strike contribute to our society? There is a simple response to that.

Each and every one of us has a role and duties to fulfill in our society. Obviously, the

society would need our presence to keep it functioning well. We need to live in order

to be present in our society. How would we live? Of course, through knowing and being

prepared. I am grateful to those people who imparted their knowledge on how to

respond to life-threatening situations and made us learn the value of being prepared.

So if they speak again, let us lend our ears and put to heart everything that they teach

us. Let us convince ourselves and think about the best for our society, for our people.

Keep this in mind. With this, we have learned the value of knowing and brings us to
the same thoughts. Prepare today, survive tomorrow. Survive tomorrow and live

brighter days ahead.