THE Office of Civil Defense-Davao Region (OCD-Davao) expects around 100,000 participants for the Fourth Quarter Nationwide Earthquake Drill in the region set at 2 p.m. on November 14, 2024.
Karlo Alexie Puerto, regional information officer of OCD-Davao, shared during the Kapehan sa Davao on November 11, 2024, that the goal is to involve 100,000 individuals, encouraging the public—especially those in the private sector, government agencies, and schools—to join.
Puerto invited Dabawenyos to participate in the nationwide simultaneous earthquake drill.
He said that the regional pilot area will be Mati City, Davao Oriental, in commemoration of the 1934 magnitude 8.3 earthquake that struck the area. He added that the massive earthquake was recorded by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS), though anecdotal accounts could not be collected. This earthquake also caused a massive tsunami in some areas of Davao Oriental.
Puerto noted that this year’s focus will expand to include the community, as opposed to last year’s emphasis on students. The drill will take place in Purok Magsaysay, Barangay Central, from Bay Walk to City Hall, with around 600 local participants, including schoolchildren, city hall employees, and workers from the provincial capital.
This year’s simulation will be a full-scale exercise, incorporating response operations and a search-and-rescue mission. The evacuation drill will be more rigorous, with participants instructed to run to the provincial capitol, a designated tsunami-safe evacuation center in Barangay Central.
Additionally, OCD-Davao announced that Tsunami Awareness Day was celebrated on November 5, with tsunami drills integrated into the national earthquake drill, as 60 percent of the region is vulnerable to tsunamis due to its geographical location. RGP
