Patients were evacuated as ceilings of the Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital & Medical Center in Batac City collapsed after the magnitude 6.4 earthquake on Oct. 25. (Photo courtesy of BFP Region 1 Batac)
LAOAG CITY, Ilocos Norte — Ilocos Norte’s biggest hospital had seen the “worst damage” from the magnitude 6.4 earthquake that struck the province on Tuesday, Oct. 25, authorities said.
In a television interview on Wednesday, Ilocos Norte Gov. Matthew J. Marcos Manotoc said one intensive care unit in the state-run Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital and Medical Center (MMMH&MC) was “wrecked” when the earthquake shook the ground, knocked out power, and forced the evacuation of the hospital’s patients.
Manotoc and Department of Health officials inspected the hospital on Wednesday.
He said the initial cost of damage to the 200-bed capacity was pegged at P20 million.
The damage caused by the Tuesday temblor on the hospital was also “worse” compared with that from the magnitude 7 earthquake that hit the province on July 27, according to Dr. Maria Lourdes Otayza, MMMH&MC’s medical center chief, during another TV interview.
Otayza said all patients were evacuated from the hospital buildings but were able to return to their rooms and wards safely four hours after the latest major temblor struck at 10:59 p.m. INQ
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