Be prepared

No one wants disasters; no one looks forward to them. From earthshaking catastrophes such as typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, and pandemics, to mundane ones like household fires and floods, their personal toll on lives, families, and businesses are much too devastatingly real to be ignored or treated as a pure mental exercise, swept under the rug to be examined later at one’s leisure.

With the local economy already teetering on the brink of collapse, nobody can afford not to be prepared for any disaster. The Emergency Management Office said as much: Any major disaster to hit a small island like Saipan may cause the economy to fall apart if businesses are not well prepared for it. EMO chief planner Theodore Untalan and EMO adviser Dr. Ken Shankweiler underscored the importance of businesses, particularly small ones, to prepare for any disaster to minimize losses. Untalan said the national theme is to link up the private sector with the public sector in terms of disaster preparedness to ensure that everyone is prepared. Preparation, after all, is key to surviving one. And this is why September has been declared as Disaster Preparedness Month.

The focus, however, must be expanded so that when one says “everyone,” it literally means everyone: not just businesses and government agencies but also individuals and families, to ensure that each one of us know our specific roles when faced with the threat of any disaster. This is why last week’s Saipan Tribune poll posed the question “Do you conduct emergency drills at home?,” to emphasize that disaster preparedness must also extend to the home and the family, the smallest unit of any society. Distressingly enough, majority of respondents said no. When faced with a small fire, a lot of residents won’t know how to go about preventing its spread, which could result in the blaze spreading throughout the house and the immediate neighborhood. When a tsunami strikes during school hours, panicked parents would have no way of knowing what is happening with their children without a pre-arranged system of keeping track of everyone.

Which is why the WSR Elementary School must be commended for the recent tsunami drill they conducted. The exercise brought to light some flaws in the system that could be tweaked to improve their response methods. At the same time, it will ease the fear of both children and parents when they know that the school has set in place a system to handle such a scenario. Children, in particular, will know how to respond when faced with the unthinkable. With knowing comes confidence, calmness, and the ability to help those who are less equipped to handle stress.

It is therefore up to EMO to cascade the concept of disaster preparedness to the grassroots level, so that everyone will have a clear understanding of how they should handle disasters. At the same time, everyone must be receptive to the idea that we can’t just rely on the government to do everything for us. We must individually make sure that we are equipped to handle emergencies to minimize losses in lives and properties. We have too much to lose to be caught unprepared. [B][I](Saipan Tribune)
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