Tag Archives: Ketsana

Disaster Preparedness: Why You Have to Be Prepared

July 20 12:30 am ,

[bubblecast id=302798 thumbnail=475×375 player=475×375]

Two years ago, many people witnessed on television a family of 5 sitting on top of a floating roof.

A wave came, and only one family member remained.  But it was not a film or a teleserye everyone was watching, but real life, and Ondoy (Ketsana). It was then that everyone realized that during extreme weather conditions – which are happening more and more frequently (super typhoons, earthquakes – one that spawned the recent tsunami in Japan) – no one is safe.  Unless people are prepared.

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Posted in: Advocacies, Rescue72 Disaster Preparedness , Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Postscript to A Storm

September 30 8:00 am ,
After the Storm

After the Storm

After lashing out and wreaking havoc to the Philippines and leaving 246 people dead, Ketsana then demanded Vietnam to bear witness to its great power of destruction, leaving another 20 people dead.  In another part of the world, an earthquake caused a tsunami to race to the Samoan shores, leaving, in this part of the world, 99 dead.  Very recently, Australia bore witness to a red dust storm that turned it crimson for a few terrifying hours.

As if taking a cue, people are likewise greatly unsettled after being at the receiving end of repeated blows: first, the financial collapse of the world markets, and now, atmospheric convulsions of the epic and never-before-seen kind.

The unsettling thing is that this time, man knows he has brought it upon himself.

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Posted in: Insurance, Life Stories, The Philippines , Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,

Ondoy (Ketsana): A Storm Brings Out the Spirit of Bayanihan

September 29 1:02 am ,
Bending, Not Breaking

Bending, Not Breaking

It was a dark night.

But the Filipino have had many a dark night, and have had endured many a storm.

But the storm that one Saturday night was different.

It started out like ordinary rainfall, just a drizzle, in fact.  There was wind, yes, slight howling, barely noticeable, dark night eclipsing the dark clouds. Just your ordinary night. Two nights prior, the resident storm-forecaster PAGASA issued storm warnings, but in those warnings, they have relegated Ondoy’s (international codename: Ketsana) category to that of a minor storm.

Nothing to worry about.

No one was prepared.

The rains came.  A deluge.

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Posted in: The Philippines , Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,