TYPHOON READINESS: ANALYSIS OF AWARENESS

TOWARDS TYPHOONS IN THE PHILIPPINES

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

Purposive Communication

Submitted by:
Belmonte, Deserie Joy Y.
Cartalla, Rachel
Dela Cruz, Althea Coarinne S.
Gepala, Justin
Haylo, Crystine B.
Mendoza, Seth Daniell G.
Pineda, Aaron Justin C.
Reyes, Raphael Lorenzo B.
Vocal, Erica Rose B.

Mr. Brian Carlo Bobadilla

Adviser

December, 2020
 Introduction

Background of the Study

The world has been put to a stop when the pandemic broke out like a wildfire – among
other things, the Philippines also did not have any exceptions in experiencing this
unfortunate tragedy that led to many lives that has lost. All while the pandemic was still
occurring, the Philippines had been hit by a series of another disaster in just a span of a month –
typhoons.
According to the National Disaster Risk Management and Council (NDRRMC), super
typhoon Goni (Rolly) entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility on November 1, 2020 and it
is said to be the strongest tropical cyclone to ever enter in the Philippine Area of Responsibility
this year. Having that discussed, Typhoon Goni (Rolly), after hitting Luzon, left a very big
impact in 8 out of 17 regions of the country, many were injured, millions of people were
immensely affected and 25 people were reported to have died, as stated by the National Disaster
Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) and Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD). In addition, an estimated of 845, 000 people has been in great need
of assistance ever since.
Typhoon Goni were followed immediately by Tropical Storms Atsani (Siony)
and Etau (Tonyo) which affected Luzon and Visayas around November 5 to 8. In addition,
between November 11 and 12, Typhoon Vamco (Ulysses) traveled along central Luzon and
flooded tens of thousands of homes throughout the close to the bottom areas of Manila, resulting
floods and landslides within northern provinces of Cagayan and Isabela. As of November 25,
Typhoon Vamco killed 73 people, injured 82 and harmed 4.2 million people in virtually the very
same 8 regions hit by Typhoon Goni. On November 19, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has
declared the whole Luzon area in a state of calamity; prompting to the LGU’s to have a relief and
rescue operations, in hopes for the affected to eventually recover from the damages.
According to the Republic Act 10121, The impact of disasters is immense, with loss of
life, losing access and loss of resources. The country's exposed to environmental hazards
already costs the Philippine government an estimate of 15 billion pesos a year. Equally essential,
elected authorities and media—television, radio, and newspapers must be completely trained to
react efficiently, professionally, and rapidly to significant natural hazards. They ought to be
informed, in preparation, of the protocols to undertake in the event of a disaster which threatens
 to incapacitate the entire population they represent, and that they need to recognize how and
when to convey relevant data to the community during a national calamity.

Statement of the Problem

This study aims to reduce the impact of typhoons coming in the Philippines, analyze the
readiness and awareness of the people in different locations in the country.
1. How does awareness towards typhoons in the Philippines helps in terms of:
1.1 Readiness
1.2 Impacts
2. Is there a significant effect on typhoon preparedness in terms of :
2.1 Education
2.2 Experience
3. What is the correlation between typhoon awareness and typhoon preparedness?

Significance of the Study

As one of the priority areas of Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Plan,
preparedness plays a vital role in carrying out effective actions in every sector in response to
disasters. Inmuch as it aims to strengthen Filipino communities in terms of inculcating disaster
awareness among its people, it is expected that being prepared would eventually lead them into
safer, adaptive and resilient citizens of the country. Recently, Super
Typhoon Quinta, Rolly and Ulysses devastated the large area of Luzon which resulted
into casualties, reparations of properties and mortality of people. Marikina is one of the localities
affected most by the typhoon. In relation to this natural calamity’s destruction of Marikina this
study will provide an insight of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management
Plan Covering Disaster Preparedness as one of its core functions and the Local Disaster
Preparedness Plan in our country. this this study will provide information regarding the process
of implementing the Disaster Preparedness Plan in our country specially in typhoon prone places.
This study will also contribute to the assessment of the effectiveness of the current disaster
preparedness in our country. Furthermore, this study will encourage to have awareness in the
importance of Disaster Preparedness Plan in addressing thecircumstances caused by natural
disasters.
Expected Output
 An analysis of awareness towards typhoons in the Philippines will help the researchers to
inform the public about the importance of awareness in typhoon readiness.
 The researchers will obtain knowledge about the correlation existing between typhoon
awareness and typhoon preparedness.
 The study will be utilized by the future researchers in terms of mitigating the impacts of
typhoons in the Philippines.

Review of Related Literature and Studies

Disaster Preparedness provides for the key strategic actions that give importance to
activities revolving around community awareness and understanding; contingency planning;
conduct of local drills and the development of a national disaster response plan. Risk-related
information coming from the prevention and mitigation aspect is necessary in ordered the
preparedness activities to be responsive to the needs of the people and situation on the ground.
Also, the policies, budget and institutional mechanisms established under the prevention and
mitigation priority area will be further enhanced through capacity building activities,
development of coordination mechanisms. Republic Act 10121 (2010) defines contingency
planning as a management process that analyses specific potential events or emerging situations
that might threaten society or environment and establishes arrangements in advance to enable
timely, effective and appropriate responses to such events and situations.
It is based on sound and scientific analysis of the different underlying factors which
contribute to the vulnerability of the people and eventually, their risks and exposure to hazards
and disasters. Disaster preparedness helps the community and individuals to effectively
anticipate, respond to, and recover from the impacts of likely, or current hazard events or
conditions. Preparedness action is carried out within the context of DRRM and aims to build the
capacities needed to efficiently manage all types of emergencies and achieve orderly transitions
from response to sustained recovery. Preparedness is based on a sound analysis of DRR and
good linkages with early warning systems and includes such activities as contingency planning,
stockpiling of equipment and supplies, the development of arrangements for coordination,
evacuation and public information and associated training and field exercises. Likewise,
preparing our communities and ourselves for calamities will help our mind set to be fully
responsible in having a good coping mechanism during and after for any disasters especially
typhoons, landslides, and floods. In this section, it is also stated the Disaster Response which
there is a provision of emergency services and public assistance during or immediately after
a disaster in order to save lives, reduce health impacts, ensure public safety and meet the basic
subsistence needs of the people affected.
Typhoons in the Philippines are common and essential to agriculture. In 1928 northern
Luzon experienced a tropical storm crossing over or near its coast in each of April, June, July
and three in August. None were particularly fierce. But on 23 November a typhoon that today
would be classified as Category 3 on the Saffir–Simpson scale passed across the east coast of
Samar (Ribera et al., 2005). Scientists in Manila had pioneered typhoon meteorology since the
1870s (Anduaga, 2019). They had tracked this one via ship reports for three days. Warnings had
been wired to the provinces, evidently without significant effect. The typhoon then moved
slowly, swinging towards the north and passing over Samar, Leyte and southern Luzon. After
passing out to sea, it bent back towards the east and hit northern Luzon in a weakened state.
Strong winds, floods and storm surges killed over 500. More than 25,000 homes were wholly or
partially destroyed half a million pesos damage done to public works alone. Governor General
Colonel Henry Stimson wrote in his annual report (Governor General of the Philippine Islands,
1930), “From the width of its path and its unusual duration, rather than from exceptional
violence, this typhoon exceeded in destructiveness almost all of the typhoons which have visited
the islands since the American occupation.” Its toll was the worst in the Philippines since 1,000
had been killed by an immense 7 m storm surge in Cebu in 1912 and 6,400 by a storm surge at
Tacloban in 1897 (Needham et al., 2015).
According to Gaillard and Mercer (2012), Disaster Risk Reduction policies are oftencrafted
at the national level and eventually implemented at lower levels by local governmentinstitutions
which are only tasked to relay actions from the top down. On the contrary, Gerberand Robinson
(2009) suggest that vertical and horizontal coordination are both essential indisaster preparedness
which is about building routine contacts, mutual information exchangesand mutual operational
efforts as opposed to compliance and frequent one-way informationflows. Likewise, on average,
at least 20 typhoons hit the Philippines annually and leave traces of destruction and desolation.
All these taken together only prove that in terms of disaster vulnerability, the Philippines to a
greater extent is indeed in a very vulnerable position.
Over the past 20 years disasters have affected 4.4 billion people, caused $2 trillion of
damaged and killed 1.3 million people. These losses have outstripped the total value of official
development assistance in the same period. Natural disasters disproportionately affect people
living in developing countries and the most vulnerable communities within those countries. Over
95 per cent of people killed by natural disasters are from developing countries (Extreme Weather
and Natural Disasters, 2012).
ACT Alliance (2019) As the Philippines known as prone to typhoons and other disasters,
emergency preparedness and disaster risk reduction initiatives will be very important essential
for the people.
Dr. Nilo (2014) said that floods became a serious hazard with high frequency. A
comprehensive catalog of historical flood information for Marikina City has not been
established. However, the flood risk is well acknowledged, and has been the main focus of
mitigation efforts over the past 20 years, udometer recordings for the Marikina-Pasig River and
watershed are presently being collected and summarized by PAGASA in an attempt to
summarize historical rainfall totals to ascertain repeat flood intervals.
The Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) came out of the World Conference for Disaster
Reduction held in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, from 18 to 22 January 2005. It is the first plan to explain,
describe and detail the work that is required from all different sectors and actors to reduce
disaster risk – governments, informational agencies, disaster experts and many others; bringing
them into a common system of coordination. Its goal is to substantially reduce disaster losses by
2015 by building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters.
According to Warfield (2008) disaster management aims to reduce, or avoid the potential
losses from hazards, assure prompt and appropriate assistance to victims of disaster, and achieve
rapid and effective recovery. The disaster management cycle illustrates the ongoing process by
which governments, businesses, and civil society plan for and reduce the impact of disasters,
react during and immediately following a disaster, and take steps to recover after a disaster has
occurred. Appropriate actions at all points in the cycle lead to greater preparedness, better
warnings, reduced vulnerable or the prevention of disasters during the next iteration of
the cycle.The mitigation and preparedness phases occur as disaster management improvements
are made in anticipation of a disaster event. Developmental considerations play a key role
in contributing to the mitigation and preparation of a community to effectively confront a
disaster.
According to Andrew Heywood (2007), “policy process relates to the mechanisms
through which public (government) policies are made”. The National Disaster Risk Reduction
and Management Plan, effective by the year 2011 up to 2028, is embedded by a legalized
framework (Republic Act 10121) in the Philippines built to address disaster problems in the
country. It is a policy since it is a formal decision made by the government and actions on
disaster preparedness will be initiated by the Department of Interior and Local Government.
Miller, Adam and Moore (2013) states that a very few people actually take effective steps
to prepare for potential disasters. Moreover, the abovementioned authors asserts that at
some point, there has been a failure in communication between government and the public, such
that many people remain unaware of the importance, the benefits and the methods necessary
foradequate preparedness in the face of catastrophic events (2013)
According to Zhou Li (2019) The Philippines it at risk from major typhoons—
typhoon Ompong, referred to as Mangkhut internationally, Affect 600,000 people. It causes
earthquakes that causes one fault line in particular may cause catastrophic damage within many
of our lifetimes.
Brian Smith (2018) stated that Being prepared for Typhoon is important as having car or
insurance. If residents are prepared for a Typhoon, they will be less of a burden for the
rescuers who can focus on helping those in worst situation.

Methodology
The researchers made use of the reliable articles and data information results with regards
to the researchers’ aim for this paper, which is Typhoon Readiness: Analysis of Awareness
Towards Typhoons in the Philippines. The method use in the gathering of pertinent data in this
paper are basically secondary data taken from legal documents, journals, and related literatures
from the internet (Gubalane, 2015, p. 4). With the gathered information and data that the
researchers had accumulated from the official statements and previously conducted related
studies acquired from EBSCO, this paper’s purpose of having factual series of information was
presented.
 Results

Table 1. Baseline specification: logit and ordered logit models of disaster preparedness
 Based on the study conducted by Roman Hoffmann and Raya Muttarak entitled Learn
from the Past, Prepare for the Future: Impacts of Education and Experience on Disaster
Preparedness in the Philippines and Thailand, education and disaster experience positively
influence the propensity to undertake precautionary actions in both countries and for both
outcome measures. According to the logit models, an additional year of schooling raises the odds
of undertaking preparedness measures by 6.3% in the Philippines and by 4.1% in Thailand.
Likewise, disaster experience exhibits a strongly significant effect on disaster preparedness in all
estimations. Based on the logit models, having been affected by a disaster in the past 3 years
raises the odds of being prepared 2.8 and 2.7 times in the Philippines and Thailand, respectively.
Similarly, the effects of disaster experience are mirrored in the ordered logit regressions
(Hoffmann & Muttarak, 2017).

Table 2. Correlation between Disaster Awareness and Disaster Preparedness

The table shows the correlation between awareness and preparedness when it comes to
disasters such as typhoons, this table was found in the study of Danilo Rogayan Jr. and Lea
Dollete entitled Disaster Awareness and Preparedness of Barrio Community in Zambales,
Philippines: Creating a Baseline for Curricular Integration and Extension Program. The Pearson-
R correlation was calculated to check if a significant correlation exists between disaster
awareness and disaster preparedness amongst the barrio community. As shown in the table, the
computed Pearson correlation coefficient R was 0.449 (p=0.035) which means a moderate
positive correlation exists between levels of disaster awareness and disaster preparedness
(Rogayan & Dollete, 2020).

Discussion
 The data collected from the figures reported after typhoon Haiyan shown that most of the
respondents amounting to 62% was deployed Leyte which was the most devastated area in the
aftermath of the disaster and the minority number of respondents was deployed to the least
affected areas around the Visayan region namely Villamor Air Base, City of Cebu, and the
Islands of Panay & Samar with 38% of the respondents belonging to the Private organizations,
19% representing the academic sector, and lastly 36% which belongs to the Government (15%
were from the DOH During the typhoon Haiyan 455-billion out P4.055-billion under the
recovery assistance for Yolanda (RAY) has said to be liquidated by the concerned LGU’s and
the DPWH according to the DILG. Most of these funds was used to rebuild highways and
infrastructures damaged during the typhoon and to build relocation shelters for those whose
homes were destroyed during the typhoon. In an article made by inquirer.net at least 203
bunkhouses were built for the survivors, each unit could be divided to 24 rooms. Somehow it
raised concerns whether the materials used for each site was different to one another, or it
includes similar specifications with no regards to the location. In contrast to the Philippine’s
typhoons, Japan have also experienced earthquakes for centuries. Once, the country was prone to
regular earthquakes and around 140,000 people were killed during one earthquake in 1923
outside Tokyo. Since then, the country was more focused in fortifying and installing hydraulic
systems beneath houses which are networked with alarms in case of an offshore quake that could
develop into a tsunami. The same incident occurred to the Philippines in the form of a storm
surge ergo the same countermeasures could be considered when building new infrastructures and
shelters to avoid the likelihood of future tragedies from occurring.
A data sheet from the World Development in connection to prior studies indicates that an
extra year of schooling could raise undertaking preparedness measures by 6.3% in the
Philippines while people with a history of experiencing disaster could raise their preparedness by
2.8 times. Other variables also influenced preparedness levels in the Philippines, Households that
includes greater number of children are more likely to consider undertaking certain preparedness
measures by 10%. Social status and wealth are also a factor to be considered and even the
respondents who started working at a young age could impact the preparedness level, since it
boils down to their familiarity to the geography of the area. Education could be helpful in being
well-informed and enhance preparedness but its impact is very little in comparison to other
factors affecting preparedness during a disaster which makes it a not so viable variable to resort
to. According to an article by Gov.PH in the latest Macro Poverty Outlook for East Asia and the
Pacific Report, the World Bank projected that the poverty rate for the Philippines to be 20.8
percent at the end of 2019 and to fall below 20 percent in 2020 therefore it is much reliable to
rely on factors like disaster experience which is another main factor that plays a big role in
disaster preparedness. Conducting of seminars are way much cheaper than a year of tuition in
schools and it could be done in a shorter period of time. Future researchers could also consider
the use of social media and software applications in informing people about the risks of
typhoons in order to improve their knowledge by two folds about the countermeasures to be done
before, during, and after a disaster.

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