As part of its sustained disaster readiness training, Davao City joined the third quarter National Simultaneous Earthquake Drill (NSED) on Thursday with Dabawenyos participating in the drill across the city.
Following this, the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO), together with the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), conducted the first-ever night earthquake drill with several crowded establishments participated.
In an earlier interview, Lyndon Leovic Ancajas, Acting Head of the Central 911 Local Emergency Communications and Response Division (LECRD), shared that Davao City has been chosen as the pilot area for the NSED. In line with this, the OCD has agreed to conduct a night time earthquake drill across chosen establishments.
“This is very vital kay kung tan-awon nato sunod-sunod naman pud ang gabii nga linog and makita nato katong target nato na establishments like mall, school, hospital ana’ng orasa dagha’g tao (This is very vital as we’ve observed that there have been several earthquakes that happen at night, and our target establishments—mall, schools, and hospital—are really crowded especially at night),” he said, emphasizing the importance of a night earthquake drill.
“Our goal in conducting a night drill is to test the preparedness level of the community, building occupants and responders when faced with an incident, in this case, strong earthquake and the hazards brought about by the strong ground shaking. The establishment’s and LGU’s emergency response protocols are also tested during the drill. The specific goal of conducting a night drill is to fine tune our actions on a different scenario, this time during the night or low light conditions.),” Ancajas added.
The night time earthquake drill was held simultaneously at 8 pm on Thursday in a mall, hospital, and two colleges located in Bajada. The city’s emergency response cluster, students, faculty, mall-goers, and other personnel of these establishments participated in the activity.
“Overall assessment of the drill was satisfactory. All the given scenarios were successfully addressed and the drill was terminated 52mins after the start of the earthquake. There are areas identified where we can improve. This is the best part of conducting a drill is we can test and assess our actions and learn where we can improve,” Ancajas said. CIO
Written by: J. Villaluz
Edited by: A. Nawal
Photo by: J. Lopez