A go-bag can save your life

The value of preparedness can never be overstated in our country which is disaster-prone.

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The recent weeks have made this alarmingly clear. Back-to-back tropical depressions drenched Luzon and Visayas with torrential monsoon rains, triggering floods and landslides. Just as we were monitoring the swelling rivers and submerged highways, an 8.8-magnitude undersea earthquake off Russia’s eastern coast prompted tsunami warnings across the Pacific, including in the Philippines. All these, and we are only at the beginning of the typhoon season.

Every year, an average of 20 tropical cyclones enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR). Add to that the country’s location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and the increasing impacts of climate change, and it becomes evident — disasters are not a question of if, but when. This makes one item absolutely essential in every Filipino household—the go-bag.