June 11, 2026

George Orwell expressed doubt about whether people were capable of learning from disaster preparedness drills. He tells us that he witnessed first hand people in London mistaking the All-Clear signal for the Air-Raid Alarm after almost a year of practice, including living through real air raids.

With this quote in mind, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Philippine people did in the face of a major earthquake. They actually remembered and acted upon their training when the quake hit. Their actions are credited with saving the lives of many people.

Personally, I think I would be more like the people of London. When I got a tornado warning a few years ago, I decided I didn't need to follow it because there was no way a tornado was hitting South Jersey. Then, less than an hour later, I read how the tornado did wide-scale damage just a few kilometers from my house.