State of evacuation

Every time a powerful storm comes roaring towards the Philippines our government tells hundreds of thousands of Filipinos in its projected path to go into places that our officials likes to call “evacuation centers”.

The thing about powerful storms is that their frequency and intensity has been steadily increasing so out of the 20 or so typhoons that pass through our archipelago, there are at least 3 to 5 storms every year that are powerful enough to require the evacuation of close to a million Filipinos. But despite our experience with storms and evacuations, has anybody noticed how our evacuation centers are still treated as afterthoughts by most levels of government?

A typical Filipino evacuation center would be a hurriedly converted school building, a gymnasium, or a church. This is the way we have been doing evacuations since time began and despite our experience with world-class, genre-defining storms like Haiyan and now Hagupit, this is still how we deal with evacuations.

The thing about our evacuation centers is that they are mostly ill-equipped to handle the rush of humanity. I would imagine the life of an evacuee in a Filipino evacuation center to be a miserable ordeal. Toilets and basic sanitation facilities would most likely be inadequate. Running water or even electricity wouldn’t even be a guarantee. There would most likely be no kitchen areas so fire hazards would be everywhere and medical services would probably be limited to a couple of first aid kits. With that prospect in mind, it wouldn’t be hard to blame most Filipinos for being unwilling to voluntarily leave their homes or for raring to go back home at the first lull in the storm.

So despite our vast experience with powerful storms and forced evacuations, why isn’t there a government program to improve the state of our disaster preparedness by setting standards and protocols for evacuation centers?

Why can’t our towns and cities build multipurpose halls or gymnasiums with the possibility of those facilities being used as evacuation centers in mind? Come to think of it, if Makati could spend billions of pesos on a “world class” parking building, why can’t local governments earmark a few million for proper evacuation facilities?

Places that are especially typhoon prone should have multipurpose barangay or town halls that are designed to be used as evacuation centers from the start by having enough toilets, a kitchen area, space for a clinic, and a small genset that can power the lights in case of power failures that usually accompany storms or disasters. I’m sure there are Filipino architects or designers who can come up with practical designs that can allow it to be effectively used by the community when there are no disasters and convert these buildings into proper evacuation centers when the need arises. Or is road repair the only thing our elected officials know when it comes to infrastructure for the community?

Aside from building multipurpose facilities that are purpose-built with evacuation in mind, local or provincial governments should have a ready supply of portalets, gensets, water tanks and pumps, and mobile clinics that can be easily deployed to disaster areas if make-do evacuation centers have to be set up. Our country should be an expert in evacuation centers by now and we need to harness our experience with the concept to steadily improve the condition of Filipino evacuation centers from the current standard of simply providing evacuees with a leaky roof above their heads.

Our evacuation centers look and smell like they do because our government officials don’t stay there. They only show up for photo ops and then leave. Now imagine what an evacuation center would look like if our government officials and their families were mandated to spend the night in a random one every time there was a super typhoon. I know it would be too much to expect our evacuation centers to look and feel like five star hotels but I think it’s high time we should at least have a government standard for the availability of basic amenities and the general cleanliness in evacuation centers. Simply providing our evacuees with a roof and a few food packs shouldn’t be enough anymore.

I know this is probably low in the list of priorities of our government officials and Filipinos, being the patient people that we are, probably wouldn’t complain about being forced to live in an inadequately equipped evacuation center while a storm was raging through but if storms like Yolanda are the new normal we cannot have millions of Filipinos pass through ill-equipped and filthy make-do evacuation centers every year and not do anything to improve the state of a service that our government has to provide every time disasters strike.*

back to top