NGO Bats for Early-Disaster Alerts |
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Sections - MiscellaNEWS | |||
Written by Barangay, Inc. (OBI) Press Office | |||
Sunday, 13 March 2011 14:56 | |||
By the Barangay, Inc. (OBI) Press Office This Website’s Editor Continues Reminder to Filipino Policy-and-Decision Makers for Earthquake-Preparedness Program and Inspection and Retrofitting of Buildings O ur Barangay Inc. (OBI) Vice Chairman Ike Señeres said today that all of the 42,008 barangay units in the Mr. Señeres issued his statement after hearing a report presented at the Ike Señeres said that the primary goal of OBI is to provide assistance to barangay units in computerizing their governance transactions, but it will now add the installation of early warning systems as one of their goals. “It does not cost much to build early warning systems. Even old computers and old radio handsets will serve the purpose. Whatever the cost is, it is going to be worth it, because there is no price to the safety of our people”, he added. Alerting Filipinos on the Tsunami from the Quake Disaster in C ommenting on the tsunami disaster that struck Japan yesterday, Mr. Señeres said that Plain Old Telephone Systems (POTS) and Global System for Mobile (GSM) communications systems were instantly paralyzed, making it difficult for local authorities to coordinate rescue-and-relief operations. “Fortunately, most of the local authorities had High Frequency (HF) Single Side Band (SSB) radios”, Ike Señeres added. “What we saw in “Can you imagine how many lives we could have saved if only we had people in the mountains who could alert the people in the lowlands about flood waters that are certainly going to flow downwards?” Ike Señeres asked. Aside from SSB radios and satellite phones, the government should also install electronic sensors all over the country that could detect movements in water levels, wind patterns, rainfall density and abnormal motions, Mr. Señeres added. “These devices are already widely available now and also would not cost much”, he also said. Commenting also on the costs of early-warning systems, Ike Señeres said that OBI is already providing advisory and consulting services to local barangay units for free, but local government units (LGUs) and non-government organizations (NGOs) have to contribute funds so that these systems could be built, adding that OBI could also provide systems integration and technical support as needed. Formerly the Director General of the National Computer Center ( In the meantime, here’s some updates about the catastrophic earthquake that struck Powerful Quake, Tsunami Kill Hundreds in Japan http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/11/japan-earthquake-and-tsunami/ Hours later, the tsunami hit (SCROLL DOWN FOR THE LATEST UPDATES) Police said 200 to 300 bodies were found in the northeastern coastal city of The magnitude-8.9 offshore quake unleashed a 23-foot (seven-meter) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks for hours, many of them of more than magnitude 6.0. (Snipped)
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