(Eagle News) — The 6.7 magnitude earthquake that shook Surigao City Friday night had severely damaged the city, leaving 6 people dead and more than a hundred people injured and currently being treated in various hospitals, according to Surigao City disaster officials Saturday.
Surigao City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council Officer Ramon Gotinga initially said that the death toll has reached 15 people, while the number of injured people being treated in hospitals in the area increased to at least 90 persons.
Gotinga said that most of those killed had died due to falling objects.
But later reports placed the death toll at six.
Search and rescue operations are currently ongoing in Surigao City which is enveloped in darkness as there is a power outage in the whole province.
The 6.7 earthquake occurred at a depth of 10 km and the epicentre was about 13 km east of the city of Surigao, the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
A report by the Surigao Del Norte regional disaster agency said power lines in Surigao City were cut and several structures were badly damaged. Surigao’s airport was closed due to cracks in the runway.
It also said that there were at least 108 people injured.
Rescuers dug through rubble Saturday to find survivors.
One resident recounted how they were woken by Friday night’s quake.
“My family and I were already sleeping inside our house when, at around 10 p.m., everything just shook. It was really strong,” said Manuel Cervantes.
Renato Solidum, head of the Philippines’ seismic agency, said on radio on Saturday morning 89 aftershocks had been recorded and more could be expected but they were unlikely to cause significant damage.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said there was no tsunami threat from the earthquake.
The earthquake was the strongest since the city was rocked by a 6.9 quake in 1879, Solidum said.
Residents of the southern town of Surigao in Mindanao island spent the night huddled in fear as aftershocks rocked the city following the 6.5-magnitude quake which struck late Friday when many people were already in bed.
Provincial disaster management officer Ramon But he added that one elderly man was buried in his home when the upper floor collapsed, and despite rescue teams digging throughout the night, they were unable to recover him alive.
Another 80-year-old woman died of a heart attack, Gotinga said, adding that at least 126 people were injured, 15 of them in a serious condition.
The quake damaged many buildings, including in the two-storey Gaisano mall — one of the city’s largest structures — and shattered windows, sending sharp shards and heavy rubble into the street.
One bridge collapsed and two others were damaged in the quake, which also cracked the city airport’s runway, forcing flights to be diverted, the civil defence office added.
Thousands of terrified residents fled their homes with many running to higher ground, fearing that a tsunami would hit the coastal city of over 152,000 people.
Regional civil defence chief Rosauro Arnel Gonzales said several houses had collapsed and search and rescue teams had been dispatched to make sure no one was inside.
“There are reports of houses that were damaged and they (the rescue teams) have to go around these impacted areas to really ascertain whether there is a need to conduct a rescue,” he told AFP.
The disaster also knocked out both power and water services in Surigao City and surrounding areas.
Authorities said they expected power to be restored by Sunday but that it may take as much as three days to bring back water services.
– Mass hysteria –
Many residents spent the night in parking lots and open fields to avoid falling objects or collapsing buildings.
Hospital staff temporarily brought bed-ridden patients outside until the aftershocks eased.
Local journalist Roel Catoto said when he visited a hospital emergency room after the quake, what he found was “mass hysteria.”
“There were a lot of wounded patients coming in and all the patients who were (already) confined were rushing outside. They were afraid the hospital would collapse,” he told AFP.
Gotinga said residents were still on edge on Saturday.
“They are all still traumatised. At the slightest shaking, they run out in the streets,” he said.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman Ernesto Abella assured the public that the government was ready to assist them.
“These are trying times and our hearts go out to Surigao,” he told reporters.
The Philippines lies on the so-called Ring of Fire, a vast Pacific Ocean region where many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur.
The last lethal quake that hit the country measured 7.1-magnitude. It left over 220 people dead and destroyed historic churches when it struck the central islands in October 2013.
(Eagle News Service, Haydee Jipolan, Eagle News Service correspondent, with reports from Reuters, Agence France Presse)
