Quake damage forces class suspensions in Southern Leyte

Screengrab from https://earthquake.usgs.gov

MAASIN CITY, Philippines—Southern Leyte Governor Roger Mercado has ordered the suspension of classes in six towns pending a complete assessment of the damage caused by a 5.4 magnitude earthquake that rocked the province and neighboring areas Friday morning.

The directive was issued after Mercado received reports that the earthquake damaged four school buildings, at least 10 houses, a district hospital and several structures in the towns of St. Bernard, Hinundayan, Hinunangan, San Juan, Anahawan and Silago.

Personnel from the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council were tasked to conduct the assessment.

Mercado did not give them any deadline but said classes would remain suspended pending submission of the assessment report.

The 5.4 magnitude earthquake, which struck at 7:57 a.m., was tectonic in origin, according to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).

It’s epicenter was estimated 8 km of Hinundayan town, with the earth movement occurring at a depth of 6 km in the Leyte segment of the Philippine Zone Fault, the Phivolcs said.

The earthquake was felt at Intensity 6 in Hinunangan, Hinundayan and St. Bernard; Intensity  5 in Anahawan; Intensity 4 in San Ricardo town and Maasin City in Southern Leyte, Tacloban City and Dulag town in Leyte, and Loreto and Dinagat towns in Dinagat.

The tremor was recorded at Intensity 3 in Palo and Pastrana towns in Leyte; Intensity 2 in the cities of Cebu, Talisay and Bogo in Cebu, Surigao City, Ormoc City in Leyte, Burgos town in  Surigao del Norte; and Intensity 1 in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.

Marichu Tan, Office of Civil Defense officer-in-charge in Southern Leyte, said patients of the Anahawan District Hospital were temporarily moved out of the hospital building to allow the authorities to assess a crack found on a concrete beam in the isolation ward.

After two hours, the patients went back to hospital as the damage was minor and didn’t affect the structural integrity of the building.

Tan said that based on their initial assessment, the earthquake damaged three school buildings in Barangays Bugho, Hubaan and Plaridel in Hinundayan town.

A wall of town’s gymnasium  collasped while a  beam cracked due to the quake, Tan said.

In St. Bernard, Tan said, cracks were found on the floor and beams of the Red Cross Building, the wall of a school building, walls of the tourism office as well as the walls near the stairway and beams of the Barangay Hall of Himatagon.

According to Betty Martinez of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, there was no damage to NGCP posts.

“The Leyte-Samar sub-grid remains intact as there has been no reported cases of power interruptions and damaged transmission facilities in the area,” said Martinez in a statement.  With a report from Joey A. Gabieta, Inquirer Visayas