Tacloban joins nationwide earthquake drill

TACLOBAN CITY, June 22 (PNA) -- Eastern Visayas region joined the nationwide simultaneous earthquake drill on Wednesday in this city as the pilot site.

The Office of the Civil Defense (OCD) led the drill in partnership with the city government here, various rescue groups, Bureau of Fire Protection, Philippine Air Force, Philippine Army and volunteer fire brigades.

Responders demonstrated their capability to handle the aftermath of a 7.2 magnitude ground shaking.

"Earthquake drill is very important for the region because we have some active faults, making us very vulnerable to this kind of disaster," said OCD Eastern Visayas Regional Director Edgar Posadas.

“Participating in earthquake drill is important and should be taken seriously because life is at stake when calamity and disaster strikes,” he added.

The earthquake drill at the city hall ground was centered on coordination mechanisms among rescuers, according to Posadas.

"We did not rehearse this. We just meet each other here, but you can see this is effective and efficient," he said.

Coordination mechanism is important and vital in response mechanism after an earthquake.

"From this drill, we found out that response mechanism is already exemplary," said Posadas, citing how fast rescue units were able to organize their team to conduct search and rescue mission at the site.

He added that they chose Tacloban as cite for the earthquake drill being the center of the region with many mid-rise buildings that might be destroyed in the event a strong earthquake hit the region. (PNA)
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