Ep 2: ”If We Called it a Tsunami”

Super Typhoon Haiyan seared the meaning of “storm surge” into Filipino minds, but in 2013, authorities were criticized for using this term instead of “tsunami”, which was more familiar at the time. We hear from disaster scientist and Project NOAH director Mahar Lagmay on what went into the public warnings for the storm surge. Survivors Mario Peñaranda and Algina Lacaba recount their firsthand experiences of the surge in Tacloban City, and Brando Bernadas reflects on the city's efforts to improve its disaster risk reduction and evacuation protocols since the storm. Anthropologist Pamela Cajilig shares how pride and poverty influenced people’s evacuation decisions, and Nobuhito Mori, Lea Soria, and Phillip Lapidez shed light on the particular geography and history that make Tacloban vulnerable to catastrophic storm surges.

Carried by Water is created and hosted by Mario Soriano. It's a production of Blue Lab at Princeton University.