Nine years after the tragedy, Saint Bernard still grapples with the challenges associated with rebuilding, reports Rappler. Although in 2006, like most other municipalities, it had no organized disaster risk reduction and management office, but two years after the tragedy, Saint Bernard was awarded a recognition of the best DRRM efforts in the country.
Established as a municipality in 1954, Saint Bernard is prone to practically every natural hazard, with the town’s coastal areas directly facing the Pacific Ocean where typhoons regularly pass. Rocks in the mountains that surround this town were shattered millions of years ago when the Philippine fault system sliced through them. All these make the town vulnerable to storm surges, flooding, earthquake-induced landslides, ground shaking, tsunamis and liquefaction.