Natural disaster - Philippines: Pregnant woman dies in severe earthquake
A pregnant woman has died in a strong earthquake in the south of the Philippines. Four other people were injured when the earth shook off the coast of the island of Mindanao at 10.37 p.m. local time on Saturday evening, according to Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro. According to the police, the woman died in the rubble of a collapsed house in the province of Davao Del Norte.
People in the south of the Philippines were still worried about hundreds of aftershocks on Sunday. The aftershocks could last for days or even weeks, said the director of the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology of the Philippines (Phivolcs), Teresito Bacolcol. By Sunday, more than 500 aftershocks had already been measured. One reached a magnitude of 6.0 in the evening, according to the institute. There were initially no reports of casualties or damage.
The US earthquake observatory USGS had given the first quake on Saturday evening a magnitude of 7.6. According to Phivolcs, however, the quake had a magnitude of 7.4. Deviations in measurements are not unusual. The quake occurred off the coast of the province of Surigao Del Sur in the east of the island of Mindanao - over 900 kilometers south of the capital Manila.
All-clear for tsunami
Phivolcs had initially warned of a possible "destructive tsunami with life-threatening wave heights". Residents were urged to move to higher ground or inland. On Sunday night, however, the institute gave the all-clear. It finally reported waves of less than one meter in coastal regions.
Two bridges were damaged, the authorities announced. Power was largely restored after outages. Images on social media showed damaged buildings. Videos showed people running out of a shopping center in Davao City in panic, while other footage showed people screaming between shaking tables and chairs in a bar.
The island state is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, the most geologically active zone on earth. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes frequently occur there. In 1990, a magnitude 7.8 quake caused severe devastation on the island of Luzon. More than 2,400 people died at the time.
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- Despite the concerns about aftershocks, a man from Davao City decided to visit his pregnant wife in Manila on Sunday, hoping for a peaceful journey.
- The police in Manila were alerted about a pregnant woman in labor experiencing labor pains due to the stress caused by the earthquake and aftershocks.
- Locals in Mindanao were particularly worried about a potential tsunami, as they recalled the devastating tsunami caused by an earthquake off the coast of Davao in 2012.
- A man from Cebu, traveling to Davao for business, felt the earthquake while in a hotel lobby and quickly rushed out into the streets, where he witnessed a woman screaming and carrying her pregnant daughter.
- The Philippines' National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council urged pregnant women and families with children to seek shelter in evacuation centers located in low-risk areas, such as those in the city of Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao.
Source: www.stern.de
