LGUs told to adopt ‘Operation Listo’
DISASTER PREPAREDNESS
LINGAYEN – Disaster councils in every local government unit can begin to implement their emergency plans based on typhoon tracks and not rely solely on storm signals.
The Department of Interior and Local Government organized last week a provincial convergence action-planning workshop that aimed to scale up the preparations of LGUs during emergencies and disasters to save lives and properties.
Reggie Colisao, DILG provincial director, said the action-planning is one of the components of ‘Operation Listo’ – ‘Iisto’ being the higher degree of being prepared.
We must not only be prepared, we must be alert and be always on our feet), said Colisao. “The difference is in the paradigm shift in preparing for disasters,” he said.
Preparations used to be based on storm signals announced by PAGASA. Today, the new manual, preparation is based on “hotdog” or the typhoon track which also determines what LGUs will be affected by the typhoon.
LGUs will immediately know if they are under category Charlie with color code red which means the LGU will be hit by the eye of the typhoon; Bravo with color code orange or those 50 kilometers away from Charlie and; Alpha with color code yellow or those 100 kilometers away from Charlie.
The manual shows the actions to be undertaken by the LGU if these are under code Charlie, Bravo or Alpha, explained Colisao.
“If LGUs prepare only when there is a storm signal, there will be little time to prepare. But if preparations are already being done based on the typhoon trajectory, there will be ample time,” Colisao added.
P/Supt Ferdinand De Asis, chief of the Police Community Relations office in the provincial police command, said the disaster preparedness plan focuses on LGUs and the specific role or tasks of the mayors, chiefs of police, fire marshalls, local government officers and local disaster management council officers of every town and city. (PIA Pangasinan)
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