Central Philippines struck by earthquake, 31 dead following recent storm
The death toll in Bogo was expected to rise as workers tried to transport a backhoe to hasten search and rescue efforts in a cluster of shanties in a mountain village hit by a landslide and falling boulders, officials said.
“It’s hard to move in the area because there are hazards,” Glenn Ursal, a disaster-mitigation officer, told The Associated Press, adding that some survivors were brought to a hospital.
At least 12 residents, mostly from small families, died when they were struck by falling ceilings and walls of their houses—some while sleeping—in Medellin town near Bogo, Gemma Villamor, head of the town’s disaster-mitigation office, told The AP.
In San Remigio town, also near Bogo, five people — including three coast guard personnel, a firefighter, and a child — were killed separately by collapsing walls while trying to flee to safety from a basketball game disrupted by the earthquake, the town’s vice mayor, Alfie Reynes, told the DZMM radio network. Reynes also appealed for food and water, noting that San Remigio’s water system was damaged by the quake.
Aside from damage to houses in Bogo, the earthquake also affected a fire station and concrete and asphalt roads, firefighter Rey Canete said.
“We were in our barracks to retire for the day when the ground started to shake. We rushed out but stumbled to the ground because of the intense shaking,” Canete told The AP. He added that he and three other firemen sustained cuts and bruises. A concrete wall in their fire station collapsed.
Canete and his fellow firefighters provided first aid to at least three residents injured by falling debris and collapsed walls.
Hundreds of terrified residents gathered in darkness in a grassy field near the fire station, refusing to return home hours after the earthquake struck Bogo.
Several business establishments sustained visible damage, and the asphalt and concrete roads had deep cracks, Canete said. An old Catholic church in Daanbantayan town near Bogo was also damaged.
Cebu Governor Pamela Baricuatro said the full extent of the damage and injuries in Bogo and nearby towns in the northern section of the province would not be known until daytime.
“It could be worse than we think,” she said in a video message posted on Facebook.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology briefly issued a tsunami warning, advising people to stay away from coastlines in Cebu and the nearby provinces of Leyte and Biliran due to possible waves of up to 1 meter (3 feet). Teresito Bacolcol, director of the institute, later said the tsunami warning was lifted as no unusual waves were monitored.
Cebu and other provinces were still recovering from a storm that battered the central region on Friday, leaving at least 27 people dead—mostly due to drownings and falling trees. The storm also knocked out power in entire cities and towns and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people.
The Philippines, one of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, is often hit by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of seismic faults around the ocean. The archipelago is also struck by about 20 typhoons and storms each year.
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