Emergency preparedness begins at home

A RECENTLY published report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) offered a broad look at climate and disaster response data from the Asia-Pacific region, and among the many areas of concern that it highlighted, one of the more alarming was the revelation that nearly 82 percent of all Filipino households do not have a "disaster emergency kit" or "evacuation bag," despite 100 percent of the Filipino population living in one of the most disaster-prone countries on Earth. Apart from the obvious implication that most Filipinos are unprepared for an emergency at a very basic level, this finding points to a number of troubling gaps in the government's larger disaster preparedness and response efforts.