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Storm over San Isidro: Repeated ‘disasters’ and Civic Community Culture in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines

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Natural Hazards and Peoples in the Indian Ocean World

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Abstract

Using a detailed archival account of a typhoon-induced flood, this chapter examines Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) as practised in a late nineteenth-century provincial town in the Philippines. Culture is an important determinant when considering DRR for any community as the roots of its present-day resilience as well as the causes of its vulnerabilities may lie in its history. The flood of 1887 and the account of the actions taken by the community in San Isidro challenge existing assumptions about DRR in the past and hint at the origins of the vibrant civil society that is such a characteristic of Filipino society today.

This chapter is adapted from an article first published as ‘Storm over San Isidro: “Civic Community” and Disaster Risk Reduction in the Nineteenth Century Philippines,’ Journal of Historical Sociology 25, 3 (2012): 331–51.

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  1. Department of History, University of Hull, Hull, UK

    Greg Bankoff

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  1. Greg Bankoff
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  1. University of Hull, Hull, UK

    Greg Bankoff

  2. Murdoch University, Perth, Australia

    Joseph Christensen

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Bankoff, G. (2016). Storm over San Isidro: Repeated ‘disasters’ and Civic Community Culture in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines. In: Bankoff, G., Christensen, J. (eds) Natural Hazards and Peoples in the Indian Ocean World. Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94857-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94857-4_8

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