Earthquake Drills: Teaching School Children to Be Safe During an Emergency

Our country, the Philippines, is always visited by an earthquake. The national government wants to train everyone how to respond quickly when this natural calamity strikes. Therefore, an earthquake drill is conducted and is participated in by government employees, teachers, and school students.

At the school level, the teachers are grouped or organized into a separate disaster reduction risk management (DRRM), to be on alert when any calamities may occur. This is how preparation for an earthquake strike is conducted. In so doing, the school children are ready and quick to respond to this natural disaster. They’ve been already trained what to do in case an earthquake may occur regardless of the time of day.

Magnitude 5.8 Quake Hits Cauayan, Negros Occidental

"There's an earthquake! There's an earthquake!"

This is what I shouted when I noticed that my desktop computer is heavily shaking several minutes ago while I was composing some write-ups for my blog.

It took more than 5 to 6 seconds I presumed for I was shocked that I forgot to monitor the time and besides I kept on shouting:

Stepping down from a bed for she's cleaning and putting our things in order beside our bed, my wife accosted me and verified, "Did you shake the bed?" I said, "No. It's an earthquake."

Later we learned that it was Cauayan, Negros Occidental which is the epic center of the magnitude 5.8 earthquake, which is tectonic in origin. It hit the said place at 1:21 p.m. Cauayan is 113 kilometers from Bacolod City, the capital of Negros Occidental and it is 68 kms from our place.

School Earthquake Drill Is a Must

The pupils of Cubay Elementary School in the Division of La Carlota City had proven themselves how they were ever ready when a natural disaster will come anytime like the earthquake.

"Duck, Cover and Hold"

Their alertness and readiness were tested recently when an earthquake drill was conducted in by the school principal, this blogger.

It was 10:15 in the morning when the grade four class of Mrs. Melanie Reyes was first evaluated. Since this was the class that was going to check on how prepared are they, I never used the bell to signal the occurrence of the earthquake. Instead I tapped the table for a minute, meaning there's an earthquake and the building is shaking.