MALVAR, BATANGAS - School Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (SDRRM) conducted an unannounced earthquake drill at Senior High School in Malvar on August 14, 2019. Over a thousand of students, faculty members and stakeholders took part on the said drill.
Dennis Castillo, SDRRM coordinator supervised the quake drill to assess the capacity level and response of the schools in the event of disasters and other emergencies. At exactly 8:30 AM, the siren rang as a signal of the exercise. The children executed duck, cover and hold and formed in designated rows on the evacuation area.
Mr. Castillo admitted that there were lapses in the conducted earthquake drill. The mass evacuation took time and some students remained reluctant about it. Castillo pushed simultaneous earthquake drills scheduled monthly to familiarize students of the evacuation procedure. He urged everyone to take the exercise seriously.
“We will have more rounds. No one can predict when an earthquake will happen. We should take it seriously. If we cannot prevent an earthquake, at least we can minimize the damage it will cause,” he said.
The drill ended with the evaluation to improve the students’ and teachers’ performance on the emergency evacuation procedures. This is to ensure a safe and orderly evacuation in order to prevent loss of lives and injuries especially if real earthquakes will occur. The total number of participants was tallied: Number of teachers, male-17/ female-32, number of students, male-561/ female 639, number of stakeholders, male-3/female-10.
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