Philippines: PWDs left behind in Marikina's disaster preparedness efforts
By Maria Feona Imperial and Yvette B. Morales
[...]
A loud, hornlike sound blares from the Marikina River. Restless families living at the flood-prone Balubad Settlement in Nangka, Marikina City start packing their bags and brace for possibly a second warning sound that would signal their evacuation.
Despite the fear they create, warning sirens have become indispensable to over 451,000 residents of Marikina, who were caught unprepared by tropical storm “Ondoy” (Ketsana) whose torrential rain spawned record-high floodwaters that killed nearly 464 people in Metro Manila -- 68 of them in Marikina -- in late September of 2009. Records show the typhoon destroyed over 18,000 houses and caused P384 million worth of damage.
The city has learned its lesson: Twelve sirens are now installed along the riverbanks to serve as an early warning system. This and other disaster-related measures the local government put in place in the aftermath of Ondoy have turned the effort into a multi-awarded disaster resilience model in the country and abroad.
But because the sirens can only be heard, they are of no help to those who cannot hear, like 22-year-old Rodelyn Gacute.
A person with hearing disability, Rodelyn has had to depend only on her mother, sampaguita vendor Zoraida Gacute, who signals her of impending floods. Only then does Rodelyn, the eldest of seven, proceed to pack their clothes and wait for the signal to leave.arily in an audible format, and this doesn’t meet the needs of people with hearing disability, it added.
[...]