| Abstract |
On the night of December 16, 2011, Cagayan de Oro was devastated by a typhoon that almost devoured the city, submerged barangays in waist-deep mud, destroyed a number of infrastructures both commercial and residential, and much worse, has claimed thousands of lives. Typhoon Sendong (with an international name Washi) was 2011芒聙聶s strongest typhoon that left a mark on the city up to this present time. But what really made Sendong that destructive? With this, the paper attempts to trace the transformation and changes of Cagayan de Oro City芒聙聶s environment focusing on the effect of modernization in the case of Typhoon Sendong.
Based on the initial findings, the city has experienced floods brought by typhoons that have similar directions and paths as Sendong in 2011. However, there were no recorded reports as to the extent of the damages caused by the early typhoons, but it shows that the path of Sendong has been already used by earlier typhoons. This means that the city has faced several typhoons from its past but none has left great damages than Sendong. It can be attributed that there are various factors that contributed to the extent of damages Sendong has brought to the city such as population growth, irregularity of the climate, complacent attitude of the residents and most importantly, the modernization. The catastrophic 2011 incident has left thousands of residents without shelter, food and clothing. However, several government agencies have responded to assist those who are in need and one of the prominent organizations was the W.IN.G.S. (Women in Government Services of the DENR-MGB Office).
Furthermore, in this paper, documents, records and data were accessed from various government agencies to support the discussion. Interviews and surveys were also conducted from individuals who were directly and indirectly affected by the calamity to provide a qualitative substance to the paper. |
Mindanao State
University - Iligan Institute of Technology