By NITZ ARANCON Correspondent SOME 34 thousand survivors of the 2011 Typhoon Sendong in the city disaster are still waiting for the government to provide them a relocation site, five years after the tragedy. Ermin Pimentel, a city hall consultant for the Housing Development Multi-Sectoral Task Force, said only some six thousand Sendong survivors have been given houses in 20 relocation sites in the city. Those who rented houses are not the priority, he said. “Kulang pa man gud ang atong yuta nga himo-ong relocation, mao nang wala pa gyud nato magatagig balay ang mga renters nga Sendong victims,” Pimentel said. Pimentel expressed dismay over the failure of the police to enforce a “no-build zone” order from Malacanang. He said the then President Benigno Aquino III ordered that all dangerous areas near the rivers be considered as “no man’s land” as a precautionary measure, and to prevent the loss of life and property. Pimentel said the order, if enforced, would prevent a repeat of the Sendong tragedy. But he said authorities did not fully implement it. According to Pimentel, city hall also declared the areas near the river as areas where houses should not be built. Despite these, he said, some of the survivors returned and rebuilt. Pimentel said he has yet to see any report from the police about how it acted on the presidential directive. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said over 674 people died in the night of Dec. 16, 2011 and the wee hours of Dec. 17, 2011 when rampaging floodwaters hit 41 barangays in the city. It displaced some 38,071 families, and 12,635 houses near rivers were either damaged or destroyed. Unforgettable Isabelle Castaños of Barangay Macasandig feels uneasy everytime it rains. Five years have passed since typhoon “Sendong” brought death and destruction in her village but her memories of the worst environmental destruction to ever hit the city so far in recent years remains fresh. “I can never forget my very bad experience with Sendong,” Castaños, liaison officer of the barangay office of Macasandig, said in the vernacular. Floowaters, she said, rose to the point that her family’s two-story house in Sitio Tambo was submerged. Castaños said she could not explain exactly how she climbed to the rooftop “Tungod sa akong   kahadlok sa naghagoros   nga  tingog sa tubig nga    nagkot-lokot.” Castaños said many of her neighbors did the same thing. Even her dog “Browny” reunited with her on the rooftop. “Buhi pa man nang   akong iro karon. Basta mag-ulan na gani, morag mahadlok na sab siya kay  magsigi og paghot,” she said. ‘Prepared’ The City Disaster Disk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO) said it was prepared for a Sendong-like situation in the city. Allan Porcadilla, CDRRM officer, said city hall lacked amphibian cars and helicopters for rescue operations but the CDRRMO is already “70-percent” prepared to ensure  zero casualty in the event a typhoon as strong as Sendong hits the city again. “Dili panghinambog ning ako pero with all of our modern new rescue equipment provided by Mayor Moreno, ug ang atong gihimo nga prevention and mitigation preparedness, andam na   kita sa city hall motubag sa zero casualty,” Porcadilla said. He said city hall’s approach is proactive rather than wait to respond to disasters as they happen. Porcadilla  said people in the villages, especially barangay officials, should know when to evacuate, forced or otherwise, and this is what city hall has been focusing on.