THE Philippines tops a list of 142 countries in disaster preparedness, a recent global survey showed, with the highest proportion of households — 84 percent — having a disaster plan. This was higher than Vietnam (83 percent), Cambodia (82 percent), Thailand (67 percent) and the United States (62 percent), the survey by Gallup for the Lloyd's Register Foundation showed.

The level of preparedness is not surprising, since no country ranked higher than the Philippines for having experienced a natural disaster in the last five years, with 87 percent of respondents saying they had.