Mandaluyong organizes seminar on disaster response 

The Mandaluyong City local government held on Tuesday, Aug. 9, a seminar on different disaster and calamity monitoring and response procedures amid the growing threat of climate change and other natural disasters, according to a report by Manila Bulletin.

In a set of photos posted on its official Facebook page, the Mandaluyong City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (DRRMO) held the program together with the Office of Civil Defense-National Capital Region to properly educate the different departments of the city government on the right things to do once a natural disaster or calamity strikes.

The DRRMO added that the Incident Command System (ICS) Executive Course also aims to increase the city government employees’ knowledge of the ICS by virtue of Republic Act No. 10121, the “Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010.”

RA 10121 is an act strengthening the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction System, providing for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Framework, Institutionalizing the National Disaster Risk Reduction and management plan, and the appropriation of funds for the said purposes.

In July of last year, the city government announced that its multi-hazard, automated, and hyper-local early warning system “Project MENCHIE” (Mandaluyong Enhanced monitoring of Natural hazards and Climate for Household Information and Education) was upgraded as the city continues toi boost its climate and natural disaster monitoring.

The new features of Project MENCHIE include a Multi-Disaster Automated Risk Assessment Generator for data such as heat index, six-hour rain forecast, and six-hour accumulated rain for a specific barangay.

This map-based multi-risk assessment generator provides barangay-level color-coded risk assessment for both observed and forecast weather events which updates every 10 minutes, giving residents an idea on which barangays are currently experiencing and will expect heavy rains or extreme heat.

The generator also shows other possible hazards that can affect the Greater Metro Manila Area (GMMA) such as earthquake-induced landslide, flood, ground rupture, ground shaking, liquefaction, rain-induced landslides, storm surge, and tsunamis.

Another upgrade of the system is its capability to send alerts via SMS, which are also emailed to barangay officials, to warn them 15 to 30 minutes in advance if there are incoming lightning strikes and thunderstorms over/near their vicinity.

This gives barangay officials the capability to disseminate warnings or alerts to their respective constituents. They will also receive via email a 24/7 daily weather forecast summary which they can easily disseminate to the community.