69 dead in strong quake, Cebu braces for aftershocks

October 2 ------ THE death toll from a 6.9-magnitude earthquake in Cebu province rose to at least 69 a disaster official said, with scores of injured patients overwhelming hospitals on the island. Injured children cried and adults screamed while being treated on beds beneath blue tents outside the Cebu Provincial Hospital, having been wheeled outside as a precaution against waves of aftershocks overnight. They are survivors of the shallow magnitude 6.9 quake that struck late on Tuesday off Cebu island’s north near Bogo, a city of 90,000 people, according to the US Geological Survey.

Others were not so fortunate. Journalists saw hospital workers loading black body bags into vans that took the dead to local mortuaries. “Many of them were pinned down by debris, which caused their death,” Office of Civil Defense Deputy Administrator Rafaelito Alejandro said on government television, putting the updated death toll at 69.

Richard Guion, his left elbow heavily bandaged, told how he and his wife, who broke her foot, were dug from under the collapsed concrete wall of their home by their 17-year-old son, who was playing outside when the quake struck. “When the cement collapsed, I called out to him,” said the 39-year-old Guion, thankful his son ignored his order to go to bed early.

Thirty people were killed in Bogo, the civil defense office’s Alejandro said. In other municipalities near the quake’s epicenter, 22 were killed in San Remigio, 10 in Medellin, five in Tabogon and one each in Sugod and Tabuelan, he said. Most of the deaths were caused by falling debris. The Bogo hospital put the number of injured at 186 so far.

Along with the ongoing search and rescue, Alejandro said there is also an ongoing assessment of the structural integrity of buildings and structures, especially schools and hospitals, to determine if they were safe, as more than 600 aftershocks were recorded Wednesday morning. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) warned that another strongly felt earthquake was possible. As of 10 a.m. Wednesday, the agency recorded 848 aftershocks. “We can expect aftershocks in the epicentral area, and they could persist for several days to weeks, and some may be felt in nearby provinces,” Phivolcs Director Teresito Bacolcol said.

Source: manilatimes.net