Saturday, March 17, 2012

Philippines stresses need to upgrade disaster alert systems

Gilbert P. Felongco in GulfNews: An official has stressed on the need for the Philippines to upgrade its warning systems and calamity response capabilities, pointing out the country's susceptibility to natural disasters.

Speaking in suburban Quezon City at the Regional Forum on Effective Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation in Greater Metro Manila Area, Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma underscored preparedness at all times of disaster.

"We need to be constantly vigilant, we need to be fully prepared, we need to communicate effectively, we need to work together, we need to rally our citizens and people to protect our families and children," Coloma said.

The forum seeks to increase local understanding of natural hazards, climate change and their impacts on the region and surrounding provinces and promote the integration of disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation into local development planning...

Typhoon Ketsana in 2009 caused floods in low lying areas near the Laguna de Bay around 60 km south of Manila. The extreme weather brought a months worth of rain in a short span of 6 hours. The rain resulted in flashfloods and sent waterways and the lake overflowing. Shot by Matthiasb, IRRI Images, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

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