Examining Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (DRRM) Through the Lens of Local Knowledge and Collective Behavior: The Case of Community-Based Flood Early Warning System (CBFEWS)

Abstract

After Typhoon Sendong devastated Cagayan de Oro City in 2011, the city's City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO) took a proactive approach to mitigate the effects of flood brought by typhoons by operationalizing the Community-Based Flood Early Warning System (CBFEWS) in the local barangays.

In Barangay Consolacion, the CBFEWS is a component of the Barangay Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Committee (BDRRMC). In its initial implementation, the system is composed of three methods: the recorrida, text brigade, and interpersonal communication from the barangay officials.

This study sought how the residents described their experience with Sendong and in the initial implementation of the CBFEWS. Furthermore, it looked into how the residents' experience with Sendong affected their response to the warning message from the CBFEWS.

This qualitative study used transcendental phenomenology as methodology to answer the research objectives. Eight participants from the seven districts of the barangay were interviewed. From the transcription of the interviews, narratives were done to present the participants' stories. Significant statements from these narratives were then highlighted to develop themes that would describe the participants' experiences. Based on the themes that emerged from the narratives of the participants, there was a strong emphasis on communal coping in the neighborhood when Typhoon Sendong struck the community. This experience with the disaster has established their social relationship, which put the CBFEWS in their barangay in the outside. In addition, their local knowledge of the river, based on their experience with Sendong, has also played a significant part of their decision on whether to evacuate or not during impending floods. Because of these, it recommends that the barangay consider incorporating these two - collective action of the residents and their local knowledge - into the design of the CBFEWS to make it more effective in prompting the residents to act thoroughly during impending floods.