Natural and man-made hazards have been and will always be a part of our daily existence. They come in many forms and affect our lives in more ways than one. Of the many natural hazards we face, I'm scared of earthquakes the most. May it be tectonic or volcanic earthquake, my heart beats doubly fast just thinking about them. Until I attended a disaster management control seminar in preparation for an earthquake drill scheduled in one of our office buildings.

Evacuation. This is what we are going to practice during the earthquake drill. We won't be doing more than that. The National Disaster and Coordinating Council (NDCC) and the Philippine Volcanology and Seismology (PhiVolcs) want to make sure our office has a disaster control plan (and can implement it properly!) and this is one great way of testing it. This is very timely since I heard we are expecting a couple of earthquakes this year. No, I don't wanna scare the hell out of you but we all know the Philippines has many active faults and volcanoes that makes earthquake inevitable. Oh and, I learned from the seminar that we cannot predict the exact time the earthquake will happen, but, we can know the magnitude of it and lessen its harmful effects through disaster preparedness.

Disasters are really a part of life. Somehow I'm glad our life span is not that long anymore because if it still is, we'll surely experience a lot of disasters caused by natural and man-made hazards. The devastation these calamities bring to life and property cannot be overstated. That I think is scary enough to make me feel grateful I won't reach the age of 100.

For more information about disaster control and disaster preparedness, or how you can volunteer to be part of the disaster control plan of your locality, visit http:www.ndcc.gov.ph.

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