MANILA, Philippines — On the morning of December 15, 2011, tropical storm Sendong was spotted within the Philippine area of responsibility, east of the island of Mindanao. It made landfall in Eastern Mindanao the following day and traversed towards north western Mindanao at 75 kph.

Although it didn’t have strong winds, Sendong brought torrential rains from midnight to the early morning of December 17, while most of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro was asleep. The rains lasted for hours on end and ravaged Cagayan de Oro and Iligan, areas with kilometers of watershed, areas rarely visited by storms. Death and mass destruction ensued. As of this writing, the death toll has reached more than 1,200 residents of CDO, Iligan, and other parts of Visayas.

Because of the destruction and the massive loss of life, aid began pouring. Donations and assistance flowed in from different organizations across the country and the world. The University of the Philippines (UP) quickly acted.

Last December 27, UP sent the UP Padayon Disaster Response Team, which is composed of experts in the fields of medicine, public health, geology, and forensics from UP Manila and Diliman. They specifically went to Iligan, where aid is needed the most.

The disaster response team is part of the new thrust of UP — Padayon, a Visayan word that means “onward.’’ UP has adopted the term to promote its interest to move UP forward in the service of the nation.

“As a national university with the highest concentration of scientists, researchers and experts, we believe that UP has the capacity and expertise to provide strategic focus and high impact, immediate, and long term assistance in times of disaster. At the same time we have a large network, our faculty members, students, alumni and linkages with other universities and institutions across the country. We, as a university, are in a very good position to provide a strategic intervention,” UP System president, Dr. Alfredo Pascual said in a media briefing held last week at the Quezon Hall in UP Diliman.

IN TRUE SERVICE TO THE COUNTRY

The UP Padayon team spent three days assessing the extent of damage and the relief measures specifically in the towns of Santiago, Hinaplanon Upper Hinaplanon in Iligan City.

The team was divided into four sub teams — the Health team, Community Health and Water Sanitation team, Forensics team, and Geohazard team.

The Health team, headed by Dr. Eric Talens of UP-PGH, provided medical care at evacuation centers, advised evacuees of proper healthcare, assessed post-traumatic stress disorder; and recommended measures to the local government unit regarding healthcare management particularly in evacuation centers.

The Community Health and Water Sanitation team was led by Dr. Buenalyn Ramos-Mortel from UP Manila, an expert in public health. The team assessed the management of evacuation camps, particularly those camps that will be used for long periods of time, as well as water sources, toilets, and waste disposal systems.

The third team is the Forensic team, led by Dr. Raquel Fortun and Dr. Cora de Ungria, from UP Manila and UP Diliman, respectively. This team assisted the local government and the National Bureau of Investigation in the identification of cadavers. They help a lot in getting fast “closure’’ for families grieving from their losses, not knowing whether their kin had indeed perished or not.

The fourth and last team is the Geohazard team lead by Prof. Mahar Lagmay of the UP National Institute of Geological Sciences. This team was to gather hazard data from the devastated areas and assess the ability of the resettlement of the affected areas. They also assessed the proposed relocation areas site.

MOST DEVASTATED

The team specifically chose Iligan City because it is one of the worst hit by Sendong but receives less assistance. Most of the aid are being directed to Cagayan de Oro.

“The devastation in Iligan I think is worse than the devastation in Cagayan de Oro. All of the members of the team agree at the assessment. I think the impact of this disaster in Iligan is even worse than Guinsaugon, the 2006 landslide that happened in Leyte,” explained Prof. Mahar Lagmay.

UP Padayon health team treated 1,460 evacuees in barangay Digkilaan. The Community Health and Water Sanitation team joined the evacuation task force in the assessment of the evacuation center and the development of the evacuation center management and protocols.

The Forensic team held workshops and hands-on training on forensic procedures and cadaver identification protocols. This was done in the Mindanao State University-Institute of Information Technology in Iligan City.

The Geohazard team conducted an assessment of the most devastated areas like the Orchids Homes subdivision. They interviewed disaster victims, conducted aerial assessment and briefed the mayor on the situation based on the assessment.

As of December 30, 2011, as posted in the Iligan City website, they have recorded 490 deaths and 390 missing.

“Houses are scraped off by the rampaging flood waters. The water was very heavy and highly erosive. In some areas, entire communities have been wiped out. So there may be dearth in the reports because whole communities might be wiped out. The City Hall relies on the survivors’ reports on the missing,” Lagmay stressed.

He said that illegal logging in the area aggravated the flood but still, the main reason for the flood was the extreme rainfall brought by Sendong.

The team also assessed that the death toll and missing persons are miscalculated because according to some of the survivors’ reports, entire communities were wiped out by the floodwaters. The team has asked the local government of Makati to bring their K-9 unit to Iligan.

TIME FOR CHANGE

One of the main recommendations of the UP Padayon Disaster Response team is that the areas close to the Mandulog River, which runs 50 kilometers where the flood waters passed, should not be inhabited anymore.

“We recommended that an area like Santiago be not occupied or inhabited anymore for one basic reason. If it happens again, five or 10 years from now and the population increases then, the disaster will be much bigger,” Prof. Lagmay explained. “Even if you have a geo hazard map but it’s not properly communicated to the barangay and the individuals, even though they know it existed, don’t make drills, how can they escape? There must be participation from everybody.”

According to Dr. Carlos Primero, Hindrance Emergent and Disaster physician, Department of Emergency Medicine, UP-PGH, another recommendation of the team was for Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to be more active in the area because they found out that there are many orphans in the area.

“One of the most urgent that needs to be done is to make a database to identify the living first, the missing person database kasi hindi magmu-move on ang mga tao kung hindi nila alam kung buhay o patay pa ‘yung hinahanap nila. Because if you started DNA testing, you have to identify first the living relatives,” Dr. Cora de Ungria added.

DISASTER REDUCTION IN CURRICULUM

The College of Engineering is currently working on DREAM (Disaster Risk Exposure and Assessment for Mitigation) Project, which will provide detailed 3D maps of the country. That DREAM Project is a R1.6 billion project handled by the Geodetic Engineering Department of UP, College of Engineering. It’s basically making use of LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), which can generate very high resolution topographic map as fine as 25 cm per pixel.

“What we have now for simulation are as good as 30 meters per pixel so that’s a big leap. Right now we are engaged in doing flood hazard maps for the entire Philippines, we post it in the website Nababaha.com. It makes use of full resolution topography but nonetheless it gives us an idea where the flood prone areas are. This is to identify hazard areas and emergency access routes,” Lagmay shared.

According to Dr. Pascual, because of this incident they are planning to really integrate disaster risk reduction in the curriculum of key disciplines like Geology and Urban Planning.

“We see the need to adjust our curriculum and to strengthen the disaster risk reduction management, but more importantly in the area of research where we can deliver impact by bringing together experts from different disciplines to work and come up with recommendations and framework to the government,” he said.