Filipinos most disaster-ready

THE Philippines tops a list of 142 countries in disaster preparedness, a recent global survey showed, with the highest proportion of households — 84 percent — having a disaster plan. This was higher than Vietnam (83 percent), Cambodia (82 percent), Thailand (67 percent) and the United States (62 percent), the survey by Gallup for the Lloyd's Register Foundation showed.

The level of preparedness is not surprising, since no country ranked higher than the Philippines for having experienced a natural disaster in the last five years, with 87 percent of respondents saying they had.

Southeast Asia is among the regions most prone to natural disasters, but a new analysis released Thursday showed its people also feel the best equipped to deal with them.

HELPING HANDS Residents of Malabon City help a tricycle driver cross a flooded street as Typhoon Carina whipped Metro Manila in July. Filipinos have learned to live with disasters, with the country lashed by an average of 20 typhoons each year. PHOTO BY RENE H. DILAN

It seemed logical that the countries in and around the Pacific Ring of Fire, vulnerable to earthquakes, typhoons, storm surges and other dangers, are also the best prepared, but the survey by Gallup for the Lloyd's Register Foundation showed that's not always the case in other regions.

«Frequent exposure to hazard isn't the only factor that determines how prepared people feel,» Benedict Vigers, a research consultant with Gallup, said.

The report found the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) played a key role in disaster risk reduction, and Vigers said the region's wider approach includes widespread and effective early-warning systems, scaled-up community approaches and regional cooperation, and good access to disaster finance.

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«Southeast Asia's success in feelings of disaster preparedness can be linked to its high exposure to disasters, its relatively high levels of resilience — from individual people to overall society, and the region's approach to — and investment into — disaster risk management more broadly,» he said.

Forty percent of people surveyed in Southeast Asia said they had experienced a natural disaster in the past five years,