BOHOL, A YEAR AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE

On October 15, 2013, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck the island province of Bohol and the nearby island of Cebu at 8 in the morning, sending people out of their homes in fear and panic. The epicenter of the quake was in the town of Sagbayan but almost half of the island lay shattered and devastated. The old churches, Bohol’s pride, were hugely damaged, some of them crumpled to the ground, as were the case of Loboc, Loon and Maribojoc.

Tubigon was one of the towns greatly hit by the earthquake
(Photo grabbed from infobohol.com)

Bohol has never seen this much destruction. The earthquake that struck in the eastern part of the island sometime in February 1990 did not brought this much calamity. The major road networks all over the island were also severely damaged. Bohol, being considered a major tourist destination in the Philippines, has just completed the concreting of most road networks around the island. Considered new, the quake toss them off. Mountains, bridges, buildings, houses and the lives of all Boholanos were never the same again.

Bohol's icon, the Chocolate Hills, looked like a kid was having tantrums here
(Photo grabbed from ABS-CBN)

But the Boholano spirit could never be put down. 

When the earthquake struck, already the social media was unusually abuzz with lots of activities. Boholanos from all over the world started updating friends, soliciting aid, assisting in the deployment of manpower and equipment to the area most affected, helping relatives find their loved ones. Today, social media is forming another platform among Boholanos as they find ways to boost tourism in the island.

Tourism, a major industry in the province slowed down a bit after the quake. But a few months after, the creative Boholanos took pride in what remained of the devastation. The ruins has become another tourist destination. Piece by piece, the coral stones that became the symbol of Boholano religiosity were gathered and cataloged, in the hope of making these historical stones a future showcase of ingenuity.

Loon's Catholic church crumpled to the ground killing a parishioner or two
(Photo grabbed from Cebu Daily News)

To date, majority of the tourism zones have recovered. Panglao Island, although shaken and stirred, remains a favorite escape for the sun-lovers of the world. Like a good martini. People now flock to its beaches and drink their blues away.

Some new adventure sites have also opened their gates to locals and other tourists visiting the island of Bohol. New restaurants and cafes have opened and the old ones are reinventing their menu for new gustatory adventures. Some even are branching out in nearby Cebu.

Photo grabbed from Rappler.com

And as we commemorate this painful event in our lives, we put aside our politics, our religion, differences, even our work, to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the quake. We give honor to those who dedicate their time, give financial support and extend efforts so we can recover. Boholanos are sending out our grateful hearts, forever indebted in their kindness, to all the generous donors all over the world.

And mostly to the Boholano pride that has kept us all as one big family, we salute you.

MABUHI KITANG TANAN MGA ‘SANO, MGA ‘SANA!

Updates on the earthquake, according to the government, can be accessed here.

What you can do

Infographics provided by Sun*Star online

Recovery efforts are still undergoing in Bohol. Some are still living under tents or temporary houses. Many students are still doing their classes in makeshift tents. The Batuan Light Bringers (BLB), a group of young people from Batuan, Bohol are still accepting donations, cash or in-kind, for the reconstruction of the houses of those affected in Batuan. Part of your donations are also given yearly to the poor elementary pupils especially in the villages of that town. BLB gives out school supplies during openings of school year and sponsor feeding programs for the malnourished children of Batuan. You can contact the author, or visit Batuan Light Bringers’ FB page and send them a message if you want to donate.

The radiation scare and some facts

The Philippines is again in the limelight at the BBC website when a prank SMS (allegedly from BBC) circulated here telling people that an acid rain from Japan will fall at 4PM last Monday. Some took it seriously so that drugstores were amazed at the sales of their iodine, the "medicine" to use to avoid thyroid cancer as a result of that radiation.

A government university even cancelled their classes and sent their students home.

In view of the radiation scare generated by the nuclear plants that were damaged in Japan during the strong earthquake last week, I am copying in full the text provided by Reuters on how much radiation should we take in for it to be considered fatal. Let us all be informed.

How much radiation is dangerous?

March 16 (Reuters) - Radiation levels in Japan remained a huge worry on Wednesday following explosions and fires at the Fukushima power plant. But there has been no indication that people away from the plant's immediate vicinity have been exposed to harmful amounts.

In Tokyo, only very insignificant amounts -- one that pose no danger -- have been detected.

Here are some facts about the health dangers posed by radiation:

• On Tuesday evening, radiation levels around Tokyo were less than 1 microsievert. While that is nearly 10 times normal readings, experts say that amount of radiation is very minimal and even smaller than a dental x-ray, which is about 10 microsieverts.
• Even if a person was exposed to that level of radiation in Tokyo all year round, that amounts to about one-third of the radiation from a single organ CT scan.
• People are constantly exposed to some level of natural radiation. They get exposed to tiny amounts through sitting in airplanes, routine chest or dental X-rays, and larger amounts through medical tests such as CT-scans and MRIs.
• Depending on the flight route, flying at a height of 40,000 feet exposes the passenger to radiation of between 3 and 9 microsieverts per hour -- far more than the levels seen in Tokyo so far.
• Generally, people are exposed to about 1 to 10 millisieverts of radiation a year from natural background radiation, caused by radioactive substances in the air and soil. One thousand microsieverts make 1 millisievert.
• A whole body CT scan, for example, gives a radiation dose of 20 to 30 millisieverts, while a single organ CT involves a dose of less than 10 millisieverts.
• Radiation is measured using the unit sievert, which quantifies the amount absorbed by human tissues. One sievert is 1,000 millisieverts.
• On Wednesday morning, levels at the Fukushima plant reached 10 millisieverts an hour before falling to around 3 millisieverts, Kyodo News Service quoted Japan's nuclear safety agency as saying. Early on Tuesday, the level peaked at 400 millisieverts an hour -- 20 times the annual exposure for some nuclear-industry employees and uranium miners.

Below are different levels of radiation exposure -- all measured in millisieverts -- and their likely effects on humans, as published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency:

• Exposure to 50-100 millisieverts: changes in blood chemistry.
• 500: nausea, within hours.
• 700: vomiting
• 750: hair loss, within 2-3 weeks
• 900: diarrhoea
• 1,000: haemorrhage
• 4,000: possible death within 2 months, if no treatment
• 10,000: destruction of intestinal lining, internal bleeding and death within 1-2 weeks
• 20,000: damage to the central nervous system and loss of consciousness within minutes, and death within hours or days.

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THIS WAS THE HOAX MESSAGE CIRCULATED IN THE PHILIPPINES

BBC Flash news : Japan Government confirms radiation leak at Fukushima nuclear plants. Asian countries should take necessary precautions. If rain comes, remain indoors first 24 hours. Close doors and windows. Swab neck skin with betadine where thyroid area is, radiation hits thyroid first. Take extra precautions. Radiation may hit Philippine at around 4 pm today. If it rains today or in the next few days in Hong Kong. Do not go under the rain. If you get caught out, use an umbrella or raincoat, even if it is only a drizzle. Radioactive particles, which may cause burns, alopecia or even cancer, may be in the rain.
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Should a nuclear fallout is imminent, here is a comprehensive guide on what to do. Please read PREPARING FOR NUCLEAR FALLOUT.

What is a SIEVERT?

Photo from postershowcase.info

Want to help Japan?

A few friends of mine have suggested coming to Japan to pitch in with the recovery efforts.  I appreciate your willingness to brave the radiological dangers of international travel on our behalf, but that plan has little upside to it: when you get here, you’re going to be a) illiterate b) unable to understand instructions and c) a productivity drag on people who are quite capable of dealing with this but will instead have to play Babysit The Foreigner.  If you’re feeling compassionate and want to do something for the sake of doing something, find a charity in your neighborhood.  Give it money.  Tell them you were motivated to by Japan’s current predicament.  You’ll be happy, Japan will recover quickly, and your local charity will appreciate your kindness.

~from Some Perspective on the Japan Earthquake

Prayers no longer needed

When the earthquake struck in Japan this afternoon I was not minding the news because I thought it was the same earthquake that struck them yesterday and I was also too busy doing a serious project. But when I checked my Twitter account, I was suddenly transported into that place.

Frankly, I was literally shivering when I saw the online feeds and cried later when the tsunami struck in certain parts of that nation, even reaching 10 kilometers inland. Subsequent tsunami warnings were given to the whole Asia Pacific region.

I was reminded of my dear friends there in Japan and I hope they were doing fine.

Consequently, several unwanted text messages kept my phone busy, telling me to pray as if the tremor in Japan could be undone if I pray. Of course, this was a commercial action from enterprising companies and individuals riding on the disaster to gain financially. Or from some zealous Christians who could think of nothing but blame the sins of the world for the disaster.

How insensitive! Or idiotic?

I don't think prayers would help now but are rather useless. What can you do?

However, immediate actions are rather necessary for those affected like helping residents or sending monetary donations to Japan. Can you believe that there are about 400,000 Filipinos in Japan? Helping and donating are noble causes worth pursuing. These are better than kneeling down and blame people for disasters.

Good luck to all of us. 

Pictures grabbed from several website sources.

Agony in New Zealand

The recent earthquake that struck Christchurch, New Zealand did not only devastate that country but the Philippines as well. 

Many Filipinos, in the hope of finding greener pastures, are flocking to that country. In what could be a worst case of bad luck, some batch of nurses just arrived last Sunday (February 20) in Christchurch and was attending English language classes on Monday when the 6.3 tremor happened. 

There are no immediate news on what is happening to them. Until now.

Let us pray for the people of New Zealand and the Filipinos who are suffering there. Let us do what we can for all of them. May the Great God be upon them and us all.

UPDATE FROM NZHERALD.CO.NZ
This is a sad news. I hope the Filipinos still trap at CTV won't give up.

More bodies found at CTV

Rescuers have found several more bodies at the collapsed CTV building today.

A large team of Japanese searchers earlier entered the site with dogs and several bodies have now been carried out of the rubble in body bags.

Australian search and rescue personnel had been using specialist listening equipment at the site this morning but said they had not heard any signs of life.

Queensland USR Deputy taskforce leader Peter Dawson said that his team had spent the morning at the site after reports a text message had been sent from it.

"We have not been able pick up any confirmation of anybody... at the moment." he said.

Rescuers last night returned to the site to sift through the rubble despite police previously saying they were "100 per cent sure" there were no survivors after Tuesday's earthquake.

The site had been deemed too dangerous for rescuers, with fears more of the building could collapse and they pulled out to focus on the PGG Building around 1.30pm yesterday.

However, police issued a release early this morning saying work at the site had resumed and Civil Defence Minister John Carter later told media that Urban Search and Rescue crew had been able to return with equipment to secure the building.

Police stressed the work was a recovery operation as more survivors were not expected, but said the teams always remained hopeful.

More than 100 people were believed to be still in the building, which housed the regional television station, a nursing school and a language school, although Mr Carter said authorities did not have a figure for how many people could be inside.

Pictures grabbed from the following sources:

heraldsun.com.au; thakurproxy.appspot.com; minivannews.com

Indonesia suffers too!

That eternally harassing, tantalizing future. Mystery! We will all eventually arrive there - willing or unwilling, with all our soul and body. And too often it proves to be a great despot. And so, in the end, I arrived too. Whether the future is a kind or a cruel god is, of course, its own affair. Humanity too often claps with just one hand. ~Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesian writer

Two natural disasters, no, make that 3 disasters hit Indonesia this week. An earthquake of 7.7 magnitude triggered a tsunami that killed at least a hundred and hundreds more missing. Mount Merapi, the most volatile volcano in that part of the country has started to erupt displacing villages. The natural calamities struck Indonesia in just within 24 hours.

What if it happened to us? (Knock on wood!) Will we be able to recover? 

Let us also pray for them.

New tips on what to do during earthquakes

I cringe at the thought of earthquakes. And lately their frequency have been more often and so intense.

My last tremulous experience was in the 90's when I was yet in college. We were having a meeting with the school president for a school activity when the whole conference room swayed. The sound of the airconditioning unit has tripled and I thought the whole place was going to burst like some bomb. We scampered to the exits leaving our older teachers hiding under the conference tables.

Had the 6-storey building crumpled due to the earthquake, those under tables would have been one of the fatalities. Because that was what our teachers told us when earthquakes strike, we should duck under tables.

That is one disastrous action!

According to an email I received today, ducking under tables could be deadly. The probability of getting crushed is very high. The American Rescue Team International (ARTI) issued some helpful tips when earthquakes strike. And I think this is very logical.

Herewith I copied the tips from Triangle of Life article by Doug Copp.

1. Almost everyone who simply 'ducks and covers' when buildings collapse are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.
2. Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.
3. Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.
4. If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.
5. If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.
6. Almost everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the doorjamb falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!
7. Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different 'moment of frequency' (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads - horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the earthquake does not collapse the stairs, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.
8. Get near the Outer Walls Of Buildings or Outside Of Them if possible. It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.
9. People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.
10. I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.

Spread the word.

Picture from science.discovery.com

Earthquakes and Corruption

Recent events around the world made me wonder- Are we next?- since it seems that the earthquake is getting nearer and stronger. A force to reckon with.

I don't want us to become one of them. Of course.

I hate to compare between two recent calamities like the Chile and Haiti earthquakes. Haiti seems to be the most affected when their earthquake version was weaker as compared to Chile's 8.8. Haiti's government was nowhere seen during those first critical moments, when people need assurance and morale boosts.

In Chile, their past president and president-elect automatically went live on different media a few minutes after the tremor, urging people to stay calm. Their government told the world that they are ready for calamities like this earthquake since they have not forgotten what they experienced from previous calamities. Several heavy equipment and rescue groups were actually already doing their job as the presidents went live. That's what people need- assurance.

Why I am afraid when such calamity would strike us? (Knocks on wood with matching pwe pwe pwe!)

One word- corruption.

Corruption, as confirmed by studies during the Haiti incident, was the main curse among Haitians. Because of corruption, buildings and major infrastructure support were wasted, burying people down with them.  Links: Industry, Shoddy Construction Likely Contributed to Haiti Quake Destruction; Why Haiti's quake toll higher than Chile's

Now I am very afraid of the Philippines.

Pic from CNN- AFP/Getty Images

Scenes from Haiti: Please DONATE to relief efforts

All pictures from CNN/Getty Images

Dapat Ganito Din Ginawa Nung Nag-Post Ng Kalokohan

Scenario: An unknown seer in Latin America sees violent happenings that will cause pain to the world and can only be prevented if we pray to his God.

Scenario: We read that "prophecy" and we shudder at the thought of it. We spread the prophesy because we "believe" that "prophet".

Scenario: IT WAS A HOAX!

Scenario: We rattled nerves. People panicked and "prayed" to his God. But what have we got?

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It's a different matter when we talk of intelligence in the works. Should prophesies like that deserve posting in a public networking sites like multiply.com?

Does being religious excuses us to do stupid acts because our blind faith decides we want others to obey our God?

Should we post something we consider "relevant" (but without basis)?

Remember the postings on a big earthquake to hit the Philippines sometime this year? Those people should be jailed, just like what they did in the story (this is different story, though) that follows:

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Chinese hacker jailed for false quake alert--report
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BEIJING -- A university student in China has been jailed for 18 months for hacking into a government website and posting a fake earthquake alert, state media reported.

The computer science student, surnamed Jia, was convicted by a court in northern China's Shaanxi province last week for deliberately spreading false information, the Xian Evening News said.

Jia hacked into the Shaanxi Provincial Seismic Bureau's website on May 29 and posted a warning that a strong earthquake would hit the province that night, according to the weekend report.

His report immediately caused panic as people were still nervous following the 8.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked China's southwest on May 12 and left nearly 88,000 people dead or missing.

Most of those victims were in Sichuan province, but there were some deaths in neighboring Shaanxi.

Jia's posting had 767 clicks within 10 minutes after its release and the seismic bureau received constant call-in inquiries, the report said.

It added he posted the false alert as a joke and deleted it after realizing the severity of the matter.

Aftershocks and earthquakes have been frequent in China since the May tremor.

On Saturday, a 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit the southwest again and killed at least 32 people.

The Heroes of Sichuan Earthquake

An earthquake of magnitude 8.0 struck Sichuan province of China at 2:28PM, May 12, 2008. The epicenter of the earthquake, Wenchuan, is about 90 miles from Chengdu. The earthquake released more energy than 500 atomic bombs, 30 times more than the Kobe earthquake in Japan in 1995. By May 19, there are more than 32,000 confirmed dead, more than 20,000 still missing, and more than 4.7 million houses collapsed or heavily damaged.

Cities close to the epicenter are flattened; whole mountains collapsed.

Millions of people lost their loved ones, their homes, their belongings. Yet there is no looting, no complaints, just people helping each other.

Within hours, people rushed to rescue. Blood donation lines run for 100 yards, and people waited hours to donate blood. Within 24 hours, all major blood banks ran out storage space.

The highway to the earthquake struck city Dujianyang (20 mile from Chengdu) was almost jammed one hour after the earthquake, not by people fleeing the aftershocks, but by volunteers, led by over 1,000 taxi drivers, came from Chengdu to rescue.

An owner of a big construction company 1,500 miles from the disaster area, just 2 hour 30 minutes after the earthquake, started transporting 60 construction machineries and led 120 volunteers to rescue. They arrived at the disaster area 24 hours later, almost the same time as the Army Engineering Corps.

Medical workers provided care under extreme conditions; they even delivered many new born babies on the parking lot.

The Chinese Prime Minister boarded on a plane 30 minutes after the earthquake and arrived in the disaster area in 2 hours. He has been the chief of the rescue operation since then, working almost around clock at the frontline with rescue workers.

1,1000 paratroopers started boarding airplanes 2 hours after the earthquake. Despite heavy rains, high winds and thick clouds, they jumped from over 20,000 foot high to remote mountain areas where they did not even know if there would be a place for them to land.

With roads buried by landslide and bad weather hammering airborne operations, a group of 600 soldiers and medical teams walked 21 hours straight on foot in the mountain area, carrying heavy relief supplies, risking landslides and falling rocks. They became the first group to arrive at the epicenter of the earthquake.

Soldiers and rescue workers are working round the clock to rescue people still buried by the earthquake. Unable to transport heavy machineries to the remote areas since roads are buried by landslides, they often have to use hands to move tons of concrete.

People are rushing to donate money. Many rich people donated in millions, but no one can match a homeless in Nanjing, 1000 miles from the disaster area. He saw the news and went to donate 5 Yuan in the morning. He said people in the disaster area were worse off than him because their lives were threatened. He came back in the afternoon, donated another 100 Yuan ($14). He explained that all he had were pennies and dimes, and he didn’t want to waste volunteer workers’ time to count them, so he went to the bank to change everything he had into one big bill. This is from a man who doesn’t have money to buy food for himself.

A 3 year old child was pulled out from rubble after being buried for 2 days. She was in critical condition and lost a leg, but survived. Her parents hold each other’s hands and shoulders face to face to make an arch to shield her from the falling building. Her parents did not make it out.

A 5 year old boy was rescued after being buried under rubbles for 24 hours. His left hand was broken, but he smiled and saluted to his rescuers. His smile made everybody cry.

An 11 year old boy carried his sister and walked 12 hours straight to flee the disaster center.

When the earthquake struck, a 26 year old first grade teacher rushed to carry her stunned students from their classroom on the third floor to the ground floor. She managed to pull out most of her students, but the building collapsed when she was trying to pull out the last few. At the last moment of her life, she was trying to use her body to shield the students from falling concrete.

Many teachers did the same thing.

This baby, after being buried over 24 hours, miraculously, was rescued unscratched. He is about 3-4 months old, and his mother kneeled down, pinned her head and hands on the ground to shield him from the falling concrete, and milked him. His mother did not make it out. A rescue worker found his mom’s cell phone in his wrapper. It had a text message left by his mother: “Dear child, if you survive, please remember, Mom loves you forever…”