ILOILO CITY -- At exactly 2 p.m. of February 15, a magnitude 8.0 quake will hit Iloilo City’s SM City that will cause injuries to 50 individuals due to the stampede and at the same time secondary hazard of fire.
These are the proposed scenarios in line with the Nationwide Simultaneous Earthquake Drill (NSED) this first quarter of 2018 with SM City, for the first time, was chosen as the regional pilot.
Drills will also be held in other provinces of Western Visayas.
While it is their first time to join the NSED, SM City regularly conducts its own drill and disaster preparedness measures, said Alleth Nogra, head of the Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) disaster risk reduction and management division.
The incidents will put “test mechanisms in place and how well they can respond in an earthquake,” she added.
The drill will be held during the time when mall-goers are at its peak.
While shoppers are encouraged to voluntarily join, employees of the mall are expected to do the “duck, cover and hold”.
“We will see how aware is our general public about the basic response of duck, cover and hold,” she said.
Meanwhile, she emphasized that the conduct of drills should be continuous to instill into public consciousness that we “are prone to earthquake but we don’t know when it will happen”.
She cited the need to put in place mechanism by local government units and participation of the community, volunteers and non-government organization.
By choosing SM City, she said that they would like to show the disaster risk reduction and management was not just the responsibility of the government but as well as of the business sector.
A post-debriefing will be conducted after the activity to determine areas for improvement and recommendations that need to be cascaded to the local, regional and national level.
The second quarter NSED will be held in Bacolod City. (PNA)
Photo on coordination meeting courtesy of OCD 6
