Understanding Risk 2024: Tradition, Innovation, Resilience

Not too long ago, Japan issued its first-ever alert on a possible megaquake of over Magnitude 9 along the Nankai Trough. While the alert did not mean that the quake will actually happen, it brought to light the urgent need for its government and citizenry to be prepared for the coming of a major one.

- HENRY L. YAP, UAP, FPIEP, EAROPH

On August 1976, the Moro Gulf magnitude 8.1 earthquake caused the death of over 8,000, injured about 10,000 and causing more than 90,000 homeless. Meanwhile, 34 years ago in July, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake shook Luzon, created over a hundred kilometer long ground rupture, swamp of destruction and damages to homes, buildings, public infrastructure and facilities, claimed over 2,400 lives and affected over a million and a quarter people. Eleven months after, in 1991, the not so distant Mt. Pinatubo located southwest of the earthquake's epicenter awaken and brought havoc to areas near and far, with deaths of nearly 850 persons and losses of above 12 billion pesos and countless foregone businesses.

Vivid in the minds of our own millennials and Gen Zs are similar major earthquakes and tsunamis that had taken place in our country. For those who were affected, recalling these events brought fears and recurring nightmares. Through the years however, a sense of responsibility among disaster risk management experts and practitioners have surfaced to reduce the impact of potential disasters through the understanding of the threats these events bring by sharing experience and lessons learned, and developing prevention measures.