The mayor of a southern town that was devastated by a powerful earthquake pleaded for helicopters to transport food to stave off hunger in several landslide-isolated villages.
The 7.8 magnitude offshore quake, one of the strongest to hit the Philippine archipelago in a half century, struck on Monday off the southern province of Sarangani and has left at least 47 people dead and injured 688, with 31 still missing.
More than 45,000 people remained displaced, about half in emergency shelters, after the quake damaged more than 12,600 houses in farming towns and cities. Many were still too traumatised to return home due to aftershocks, provincial officials said.
Sarangani reported 20 dead from the quake, the highest toll from the affected provinces, mostly due to a landslide that buried houses in the coastal town of Glan, according to the government’s Office of Civil Defense.
Glan Mayor Victor James Yap said yesterday that power has not been restored to his province and 10 of 31 villages in his town of more than 100,000 people remained inaccessible, mostly due to landslides.
A key access road to the town has been reopened and would allow the delivery of fuel soon, but the town remained without power and cellphone services were still spotty, said Yap.
Most of the deaths from the quake were caused by falling debris from collapsed buildings and landslides in Sarangani, the coastal city of General Santos, and the outlying provinces of South Cotabato and Davao Occidental.
Two swimmers drowned and one remained missing off General Santos after being swept out to sea shortly after the quake hit.
Waves of up to 1.4m above tide level were measured in the country’s south and smaller waves washed ashore in Indonesia and Palau and as far away as southern Japan. — AP
