By Renzo Acosta
After a minute or two of ringing and makeshift earthquake sounds, ambulances, firetrucks, backhoes, and vans from different government agencies arrived successively. Those who ducked, covered, and held took photos and videos of the parade of sirens.
This kind of response to the drill was happening nationwide, not just in Quezon City, as reflected on Twitter. From 7 AM to 1pm, the #MMShakeDrill remained at the top spot of trending topics in the Philippines. It also reached over 3.5 billion impressions, according to Rappler's social listening tool Reach. On Twitter, "impressions" means "the times a user is served a Tweet in timeline or search results."
The setup of different stations in Quezon City was quick. The Philippine Red Cross immediately set up a field hospital in an empty area between the Commonwealth entrance of the venue and the Quezon Memorial shrine. There were lines of stretchers, tents, and ambulances, all ready to operate once needed. (READ: "#MMShakeDrill is almost real')