THE devastating floods that followed Severe Tropical Storm Kristine are not the first of their kind. Many have occurred since Metro Manila was submerged by Typhoon Ondoy in 2009. So have murderous mudslides. In 2006, 1,221 people were buried alive when the entire slope of the mountain collapsed in the village of Guinsaugon, St. Bernard, Southern Leyte. Many of these incidents have happened with varying degrees of devastation.

Yet every time these floods and landslides happen, we are all ignorantly surprised and woefully unprepared. After the floodwaters subsided and the victims' bodies were buried, everyone — mainly those responsible for preventing these tragedies — returned to business as usual, even though we are living in the age of climate change, where no business can revert to old ways of operating, as super typhoons are now the norm.