The third annual “Shake Drill” kicked off on Friday with rescuers and volunteers simulating emergency scenarios in the aftermath of a major earthquake and testing whether they could act fast enough through the daily calamity that is Metro Manila traffic. Traffic aides tested, tooMon Santiago, the head of the MMDA’s Metro Manila Crisis Monitoring and Management Center, said the skills of traffic enforcers were also tested by the drill being held on a payday, where the afternoon traffic tends to be heavier. The drill officially started at 4 p.m., with the exercise sites being hit by a power outage and a disruption in cell phone communications. Though many expected traffic to become a nightmare that afternoon, the MMDA said road conditions near the drills were not as heavy as anticipated. Original planThe Inquirer learned that the MMDA initially planned the drill to remain “unannounced” to see more accurately how the public and emergency responders would react.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer July 14, 2017 21:00 UTC