1 dead, 4 injured after powerful quake hits Masbate

ONE person died, four others were injured and several buildings were damaged in a powerful earthquake that shook Masbate province on Tuesday, authorities said.

READ: Magnitude 6.5 quake rocks Masbate

The fatality was identified as Gilbert Sauro, a retired police colonel, whose three-storey home  at Sitio Alimango of Barangay Concepcion in Cataingan collapsed during the 6.5 quake that struck the  at town at 8:03 a.m., said Rino Revalo, Masbate’s provincial administrator.

Among the damaged structures were the Public Attorney’s Office building, the old and new Cataingan public market, the Cataingan Municipal Police Station, the concrete road and docking area of Cataingan Port and several residential houses, according to the Masbate Provincial Police Office.

Four unidentified persons sustained minor injuries.

Revalo, in an interview over TeleRadyo, also said that local officials are eyeing to temporarily evacuate locally stranded individuals (LSIs)  undergoing quarantine from a coliseum and the patients, including those infected with Covid-19, and staff from the Cataingan District Hospital after several cracks in the buildings were found.

So far at least 14 aftershocks have been recorded by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), with the strongest registering at a magnitude 3.5.

‘Dizzying’

A video posted on Facebook and verified by AFP shows light damage to a food market in Cataingan.

Overturned buckets and small fish were scattered on the ground and chunks of cement had fallen from a pillar. People stood outside on the street.

Philippine Red Cross Chairman Richard Gordon tweeted photos taken by his colleagues showing buildings in Cataingan with corrugated iron roofs fallen in.

Other photos taken in nearby Uson town show a sealed road with a large crack across it.

The quake was felt hundreds of kilometers away.

In Iloilo City, residents ran out onto the streets.

“It was strong, dizzying,” police Colonel Eric Dampal told AFP.

“Almost everyone inside buildings rushed to the streets. Up to now, they’re still outside.”

The Philippines is situated on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.

A 6.8-magnitude quake struck the southern island of Mindanao in December, killing at least three people, injuring dozens and damaging buildings.

It hit as the island was still recovering from a string of deadly quakes in October.

AFP

Source: TheManila Times