Quake forces class suspension in South Leyte
MAASIN CITY—Classes were suspended in six towns in Southern Leyte following a 5.4-magnitude earthquake in the province Friday.
The suspension came after the province’s governor, Roger Mercado, received reports of damage to four school buildings, a district hospital and several structures in St. Bernard, Hinundayan, Hinunangan, San Juan, Anahawan and Silago towns.
The governor ordered provincial government workers to inspect the damage but did not give them a deadline for the report.
Classes, though, would remain suspended until the damage report comes in.
Tectonic in origin, the quake hit Southern Leyte at 7:57 a.m., according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
Its epicenter was located 8 kilometers off Hinundayan.
The earthquake was felt at Intensity 6 in Hinunangan, Hinundayan and
St. Bernard; Intensity 5 in Anahawan, and Intensity 4 in San Ricardo town and Maasin City in Southern Leyte, Tacloban City and Dulag town in Leyte province, and Loreto and Dinagat towns in the Dinagat Islands.
Marichu Tan, Office of Civil Defense officer in charge in Southern Leyte, said patients at Anahawan District Hospital were moved out of the hospital building while the damage was being assessed.
Tan said three school buildings in three villages in Hinundayan also suffered damage.
A wall of the town’s gym collapsed while a beam cracked.
In St. Bernard, Tan said cracks were found on the floor and a beam of the Philippine Red Cross building, the wall of a school building, walls of the tourism office and walls near the stairway and a beam of the barangay hall in Himatagon.
According to Betty Martinez, of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), there was no damage to NGCP facilities. With a report from Joey A. Gabieta, Inquirer Visayas
