Disaster preparedness

WITH THE COMING OF THE rainy season, and images of the disaster caused by last year’s Tropical Storm Ondoy and Typhoon Pepeng still fresh on the minds of many, the government agencies tasked with relief operations are on their toes.

They are stocking up on the goods, equipment and materials that may be needed in case the La Niña phenomenon decides to make a strong comeback in the country this year.

The apprehension about another near catastrophic watery experience is aggravated by reports of earthquakes in some countries in the Pacific ring of fire, which includes the Philippines.

With the assistance of the Office of Civil Defense, many government offices and private companies have conducted earthquake drills to familiarize their employees with the proper safety procedures in the event tremors hit their premises.

Earlier, during the summer months when the El Niño phenomenon was at its height, the safety concern was about fires.

It’s ironic that more houses seem to get burned in March, the Fire Prevention Month, than in other months of the year.

Not that there is reason to be paranoid, but after fire, comes water, and then there are earthquakes to be worried about.

Safety measures

Learning from the lessons of the past, most companies today have put in place, or made provisions for, disaster preparedness in their operational structure.

For companies with numerous employees or have work premises other than their headquarters, the usual instruction given in case their assignment areas become inaccessible or ceases to be operational due to any calamity is to call a certain number or report to a pre-determined place.

After attending to the safety of the staff, the next most important item on the preparedness agenda is safeguarding the company’s database on important information.

The facts and figures about, among others, customers, price list, contracts, personnel, financial transactions and significant corporate actions must be preserved.

The preservation can be done through duplicate hard copies or in digitized (or stored in computer files) form.

In both cases, there are companies that offer storage services depending on the medium used to store the information.

If stored in digital form, the backup files can be stored in temperature-controlled and fireproof rooms that can be accessed 24/7 by their owners, and are equipped with security measures to prevent unauthorized viewing.

A storage company boasted on its website that its building is so secure that only a direct bomb hit can destroy it and its contents!

Duplicate copies

Disaster preparedness for important personal or financial documents should also be the concern of private persons.

Setting aside sentimental considerations, some of these documents, e.g., land or condominium titles, motor vehicle certificates, birth or wedding certificates, last will and testament, passports, financial instruments and stock certificates, are difficult to replace or reconstruct if lost or destroyed.

Even if kept under lock and key in a person’s house, the original copies of these papers are susceptible to loss or destruction due to fire, floods or other natural or manmade calamities.

Security experts advise that these documents should, as much as possible, be stored in safety deposit boxes of reputable banks, preferably near their owner’s residence to ensure easy access whenever needed.

While it is true that the buildings where these boxes are installed are not immune from calamities, the risks of loss or damage are minimized by the structural and safety measures that banks implement to protect their premises.

Before placing the documents in those boxes, however, the owners should reproduce copies for inventory and personal safekeeping purposes.

The duplicate copies, including a spare key to the box, can be kept in a secure place in the owner’s house or office, or the premises of a trusted friend or relative.

Precautions

The importance of keeping duplicate copies was shown in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

The two buildings housed the offices of several banks and financial institutions that maintained safety deposit boxes for their customers.

Most of the documents stored in those boxes were either burned beyond recognition or too dirty to be of use to their owners.

For obvious reasons, there was no inventory on record of the contents of those boxes because only their lessees knew what they placed inside.

According to reports, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of treasury bills, corporate bonds, gold and silver certificates, shares of stocks and other financial instruments were gutted.

In the absence of proof of the valuable documents lost, the insurance companies refused to pay the claim for damages by the lessees of the boxes.

For the same reason, the issuers or debtors of the burned financial instruments rejected demands for redemption or payment of their stated values.

Only the lessees who kept copies of the burned documents were able to replace their lost financial instruments or recover their value. (For feedback, please write to rpalabrica@inquirer.com.ph.) –Raul J. Palabrica, Philippine Daily Inquirer