Studying the need to build dedicated evacuation centers

The heavy rains brought by Super Typhoon Carina and the enhanced southwest monsoon (habagat) on June 24, 2024 flooded many areas and showed the preparedness of government agencies to respond to the extraordinary rainfall dumped on the National Capital Region (NCR), Calabarzon, and several provinces in one day.

A part of preparedness whose operations start when a typhoon, or other calamity, nears is evacuation of people to safer areas.  Traditionally, schools become the evacuation centers when disaster strikes, like fire, typhoon, flood, eruption of volcano, earthquake. Schools have ready facilities like classrooms, multi-purposes halls, or gymnasiums to house families. 

With climate change causing stronger typhoons and heavier rainfalls, evacuees need more time before they can go back to their houses.  The use of schools as evacuation centers causes a problem – it disrupts learning.

The day after the onslaught of Super Typhoon Carina, Department of Education Secretary Sonny Angara reminded local government units (LGUs) to ensure that the use of schools as evacuation facilities is “as brief as possible” to prevent disruption to learning. Under a DepEd Order, the use of schools as evacuation centers shall not exceed 15 days.  Angara emphasized that gymnasiums, learning and activity centers, auditoriums, and other open spaces “shall be utilized first.”

By then, 21 schools in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Calabarzon region were being used as evacuation centers.

Fifteen days may be too long for housing families living in flood-prone areas during a typhoon. But floods do not subside the day after the typhoon exits.  But for victims of other natural disasters, that is not long enough. In the recent eruption of Mayon Volcano, evacuees were allowed to go back to their houses after four months.

A bill proposing to make it mandatory for LGUs to build evacuation centers now comes to mind. Senate Bill No. 2451, filed in 2023, seeks to establish evacuation centers in all cities and municipalities nationwide. Under the proposed measure, these evacuation centers shall provide immediate and temporary evacuation for people displaced by human-induced disasters, calamities, or emergencies such as floods, typhoons, earthquakes, fire, and the outbreak of diseases, among others.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, one of the authors of the bill, again urged the need to construct dedicated evacuation centers to refrain from using schools as evacuation centers, citing disruption to learning as a major reason.

The Senate Bill tasks the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC)through the Office of Civil Defense, to be the lead implementing agency.  It also sets the structural integrity and building capacity of the evacuation centers to be “disaster-resilient, built with sturdy materials, constructed and designed to withstand super typhoons or wind speeds of at least 300 kilometers per hour, and seismic activity of at least 8.0 magnitude.”

While schools have served the purpose of evacuation centers, it should not remain as the only option especially in areas more at risk of natural disasters.  Are there enough schools to house the number of people who may need to be evacuated – while leaving classrooms unoccupied so classes can go on? The problem of overcrowded evacuation centers is that it can lead to the spread of illness or disease.

To add to disaster preparedness, building dedicated evacuation centers in certain areas may be needed.  We don’t need to wait for a bill to be enacted into law to get going on studying this option.