What have we got to lose if we prepare for it?
“Speaking to disaster risk experts at a summit broadcast over radio on Monday, June 16, Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) director Renato Solidum stated that Metro Manila would face isolation due to collapsed roads and buildings as well as fires if it got hit by a a 7.2-magnitude earthquake,” reports Camille Diola on Philstar.com.
The report noted: “The West Valley Fault runs north to south along the west and east edges of the Marikina Valley poses the greatest threat to Metro Manila.”
Solidum explained that due to the presence of the West valley Fault, “a 7.2-magnitude earthquake, can heavily damage over 100,000 residential buildings in the metro.”
He also “reiterated that the potential quake is foreseen to cause the deaths of 31,000 people and hurt as many as 110,000 given Metro Manila’s dense population of almost 10 million.”
For his part, Manny de Guzman, president of Asia Pacific Institute for Green Development, suggested, “Given this grim disaster scenario [in Metro Manila], the rest of the country will have to be well prepared to help quickly, in a coordinated and efficient manner, and with sufficient skilled responders and logistics, particularly for search and rescue and emergency relief, which I believe will be initially dependent on the use of choppers.”
