Dazed survivors of a pair of major earthquakes in the southern Philippines woke up to devastating scenes on Saturday, after hundreds of aftershocks shook the region overnight.
Many coastal residents of Mindanao island slept outdoors, fearful of being crushed to death by the aftershocks of magnitude 7.4 and 6.7 earthquakes that struck within hours of each other off the coast on Friday.
Philippine authorities said at least eight people were killed, but they were still assessing the extent of the damage.
In Manay, a community of 40,000 people in Mindanao, people were clearing rubble and clearing broken glass from homes and other buildings on Saturday morning.
Residents carry a woman on a stretcher on Saturday in the earthquake-hit town of Manay, Davao Oriental province, southern Philippines. Source: AP / Jeffrey in love
“Our small house and our small shop have been destroyed,” said resident Ven Lupogan.
‘We have nowhere to sleep. There is no electricity. We have nothing to eat.’
A tsunami warning was issued for the southern coastal areas of the archipelago, but was later withdrawn.
800 aftershocks
Some people in Manay slept in tents, under makeshift tarps and hammocks, in vehicles and on mats laid out in parks or on the sides of streets, as aftershocks rippled across the region of 1.8 million people.
At the badly damaged Manay government hospital, patients lay outside on beds waiting for treatment.
Many had driven away on Friday as government engineers said the building had been structurally compromised.
Residents gather under a tent in the earthquake-hit town of Manay. Source: AP / Jeffrey in love
Area retailers cleaned up broken glass and put merchandise back on the shelves.
Vilma Lanayo rushed to rescue her family’s clothes and belongings from their collapsed house in Manay.
“Reconstruct [our home] is difficult now…money is a problem,” Lanayo said.
The Philippine Seismology Bureau has recorded more than 800 aftershocks since the first earthquake struck Mindanao, which is riddled with major fault lines. It says these are expected to last weeks.
In Mati, about a two-hour drive southwest along the coast, Margarita Mulle and her relatives held a vigil for her older sister, who had previously died of an illness, even as neighbors stayed away after tsunami warnings have since been lifted.
“Just in case something happens, her [relatives] will carry the body using a ‘tora-tora,'” said a tearful Mulle, using a local term for a tractor-pulled cart that is a major mode of transportation in the rural areas of the south.
Earthquakes occur almost daily in the Philippines, located on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific Basin.
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