Probably a good move... http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/stor...-of-west-valley-fault-under-muntinlupa-school http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/stor...ls-not-9-directly-on-top-of-west-valley-fault http://http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issues/disasters/knowledge-base/93913-schools-hospitals-facilities-near-west-valley-faultwww.gmanetwork.com/news/story/493514/news/nation/deped-140-public-schools-located-in-barangays-straddling-valley-fault-system Good to see some positive action and forethought. And in Rappler: http://www.rappler.com/move-ph/issu...s-hospitals-facilities-near-west-valley-fault
A metro wide quake drill on July 30th.... http://www.philstar.com/metro/2015/05/28/1459421/metro-wide-quake-drill-set-july-30
If you think that these drills will make any difference then I guess thats a good thing.. For me its merely a charade. IMO when/if it ever happens it will be yet another Yolanda style managed catastrophe with politicians and barangay captains awaiting to control and manipulate/hide massive aid donations from victims. thats just the way it works here.
Well of course. But that is a political issue for the people of the Philippines to deal with. Hopefully that might get resolved one of these days.
A ticking time bomb...aging Angat Dam. Supplies 97% water to metro manila which would be lost and many villages would be drowned as the reservoir sits across the west valley fault. "Alvarado said that unless the 47 years old Angat dam is immediately repaired and strengthened, it will always serve like the probervial "Sword of Damocles" hanging over the heads of Bulakenyos. He said the people of Bulacan are once again appealing to the national government to send engineers and experts to prod the new owner of Angat dam, the Korean firm K-Water and a Filipino partner - to immediately start its rehabilitation." http://www.interaksyon.com/article/...-along-west-valley-fault-line---bulacan-execs I am not convinced that it is all a charade. After all the government of the day and the governments servants aswell as their families and friends, colleagues and aquaintences have to live and work and study and play in the region. It makes sense for them to be concerned for their own sakes, if not for the rest of the Philippine population. The bottom line is that if no evasive action is taken, the people in the region are sleepwalking into a large scale national disaster with not just a double whammy attached but a cluster. It is inevitable as sure as day follows night.
The serious flooding that occurred in Manila during typhoons in recent years like Odnoy was in part due to the need to release water from the dams at the back of Manila to prevent their destruction, that combined with the drainage issues, the typhoon surge and a high tide meant that even coastal area's as far down as Las Pinas and Paranaque ended up several feet underwater. We are less than 600 meters from the bay and the combination of all these factors put our place in a 3 foot flood and we are at a reasonable elevation above sea level.
Have read a bit more about Angat Dam, it is an apocalypse waiting to happen. If and when there is large quake in Manila the chances are that this dam will catastrophically multiply the loss of life, both for the primary reason of flooding and secondary loss of 90% of Manila's potable water, loss of 250 Megawatts of generation capacity won't help in the reconstruction either. Utterly terrifying
And as you say, liquifaction will play a part. I cannot see it not happening. The forces causing the closure of the Pacific Ocean are continuing relentlessly. The West Valley Fault is an already established source of release for those forces.
Yes it absolutely will happen, there has been a great deal of tectonic activity around the region in the last few years (ring of fire in general), there were fears about Angat publicly expressed back in 2013 and much further back than that too. Manila is one of those perfect storms, where everything conspires to create a catastrophe of proportions never seen in the modern world. There are assurances from the authorities that all construction in the last 30 odd years is up to official standards, like all tower blocks built in the last x period of time are safe, but I would bet anyone they are not built like Japanese tower blocks of the last 30 years. An emerging country with one of the highest population densities in the world that has been unable to do little more than turn to prayer in the face of impending disaster When it does go and if we are unlucky enough that it is soon, rich or poor will it will make no difference, every family in the country will be affected in some way. And yes the Pacific will close and it will continue to wreak havoc periodically for millions of years in the process of its closure.
Looks like the British Army are out there in Manila just now... http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2...ish-troops-assess-plans-manila-quake-scenario
Believe it or not, Japanese officials are mulling the idea of installing toilets in some of the Tokyo's lifts to provide a means of relief to the estimated 160,000 who may be stranded following the next major earthquake. I kid you not!
These guys are taking it seriously. http://m.ateneo.edu/mob/news/12309/...tatement-on-west-valley-fault-safety-measures
Yes they are but as you pointed out the Angat Dam potentially just multiplies the problem on the ground in the aftermath of any major quake. The question for the Philippines is are they even barely prepared for what might happen? I've always been a pessimist in life, I take the view of 'expect the worst' and then it is a 'nice surprise' when it does not happen, like MAD (mutually assured destruction) in the 70s and 80s but when it comes to something that will happen no matter what and when the consequences will be so calamitous, they need to be doing something now, they can't just have faith that god will be kind
I'd be very surprised if the Ateneo didn't take it seriously - it educates the scions of the rich and influential from kindergarten to post-graduate levels. And it has plenty of money and can braise heaps more. The same can not be said for most of the country's institutions or public or private buildings.
