The Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC) grounds on Friday served as the locus of the Metro Manila north quadrant sector’s disaster command post in this year’s #SHAKEDRILL.
The drill is the major earthquake response simulation spearheaded by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) in collaboration with national as well as local government units and participating private sector stakeholders.
At VMMC, the component units from Quezon City, Caloocan, Mandaluyong, San Juan and Valenzuela cities, set up their respective disaster response activity centers, with QC Mayor Herbert Bautista taking the lead as the designated sector commander.
Among the high priorities of the exercise was the simulated damage assessment and agenda for delivering response addressing the physical and psychological trauma inflicted on the general population.
Mayor Bautista suggested that future such simulations could include scenario setting for incidents of looting.
The designated rescue teams promptly deployed to imagined areas of critical need, including rescue scenarios from simulated building collapse and resulting traffic jams.
In Pasig City, the earthquake drill as preceded by the enactment of a counter-terrorism exercise, which involved a composite team from the police SWAT unit, Bureau of Fire Protection, as well as non-military emergency rescue units.
The drill included a script involving the rescue of civilians trapped in the terrorist alarm situation.
Elsewhere, those taking part in the Metro-wide drill, including workers and students, practiced the prescribed Cover-Duck_Hold procedures when an earthquake hits.
The drill included imagined scenes of fires breaking out and vehicles sprawled on the roads, necessitating the response of firefighters and rescue volunteers.
Click and watch this video report below:
Some scenes from #SHAKEDRILL follow:
