More rescuers sent to quake, landslide victims

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines—Rescuers dug with picks and shovels trying to reach dozens of people trapped under houses collapsed by a strong earthquake Monday in Guihulngan City and the town of La Libertad in Negros Oriental.

Governor Roel Degamo dispatched on Tuesday the Negros Oriental Search and Rescue Team to the two places in hopes of finding survivors under the rubble.

The rescue teams will augment rescuers from La Libertad, some 100 kilometers north of here, who have been digging since Monday afternoon with picks and shovels.

A report from the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said that two teams of rescuers from the Federation of Volunteers through Radio Communication Inc. from Cebu were also on their way to Guihulngan and La Libertad to augment the operations.

Reports say the magnitude 6.8 earthquake, felt at intensity 7 in Negros Oriental, killed at least 52 people who were mostly buried in the landslides that followed the first quake at 11:49 a.m.

In the mountain village of Planas, 15 kilometers from coastal Guihulngan, as many as 30 houses were buried with at least 40 residents believed trapped, said Degamo.

“Their situation is bad because if you are covered by landslide for one hour, two hours, how can you breathe?” Guihulngan Mayor Ernesto Reyes said. “But we just hope for the best, that there are still survivors.”

Reyes said aftershocks were causing fear among residents of Guihulngan, leading them to sleep in open fields Monday evening.

“We are discouraging them to return to their homes until after these aftershocks end,” Reyes said.

Army troops and police were deployed to help in the rescue.

At least 10 people were confirmed dead in Guihulngan, including students at a college and an elementary school and others in a town market that collapsed, Reyes said. About 100 were injured.

The quake, which hit at 11:49 a.m. (0349 GMT), triggered another landslide in the mountain village of Solongon in La Libertad town, also in Negros Oriental. An unknown number of people were trapped, said La Libertad police chief inspector Eric Arrol Besario.

“We’re now getting shovels and chain saws to start a rescue because there were people trapped inside. Some of them were yelling for help earlier,” Besario told The Associated Press by phone. Three key bridges in the town cracked and were no longer passable, he said.

Food and medicines were waiting in the provincial capital of Dumaguete, but the aid could not reach the villages in need because of damaged roads and bridges.

“There is a Canadian and an Indian doctor who are here for an earlier scheduled medical mission and it’s good that they are helping us,” said Reyes. “They have some medicines with them but that may not be enough.”

The provincial disaster management council also sounded a call for assistance in the form of drinking water, tents and food for patients at the Guihulngan District Hospital. The 50-bed  hospital was overflowing with patients as of 9:29 Monday night.

Bindoy town Mayor Valente Yap said the district hospital in Bindoy has become a transport point for patients to the Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital. Yap said the patients have to be passed from one ambulance to another because some bridges have been rendered impassable by the earthquake.

Nine bridges were damaged in Negros Oriental, including four that were not passable, said  Degamo. The worst damage was concentrated in the province’s mountainous northern portion, he said.

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) briefly issued a tsunami alert for the central islands. Huge waves washed out five bamboo and wooden cottages from a beach resort in La Libertad, but there were no reports of injuries, said police Superintendent Ernesto Tagle. Elsewhere along the coast, people rushed out of schools, malls and offices.

Two people died in another town close to the epicenter, Tayasan, including a child when a concrete fence of a house collapsed, said Benito Ramos, head of the Office of Civil Defense.

Another child was killed in a church when a wall collapsed during a funeral in Negros Oriental’s Jimalalud town, Mayor Reynaldo Tuanda said.

Tayasan police officer Alfred Vicente Silvosa told AP by phone that aftershocks were preventing people from returning to their homes.

“We are outside, at the town plaza. We cannot inspect buildings yet because it’s dangerous,” Silvosa said. “I felt the building shaking, so I rushed out of the building. Our computers, shelves, plates, the cupboards, water dispenser all fell.”

A three-story office building also collapsed in La Libertad, but occupants escaped.

Negros Oriental police chief Edward Carranza said the temblor damaged many houses in Guihulngan and he ordered his men to help displaced residents find shelter.

Officials in some areas suspended work and canceled classes. Power and telecommunications were knocked out in several places.

Carranza said police rushed out of his building when the quake struck. “All my personnel ran out fearing our building would collapse,” he said.

“Now it’s shaking again,” he said as an aftershock hit. “My keychain is dancing.”

The US Geological Survey said the quake was centered 44 miles (72 kilometers) north of Dumaguete City on Negros and hit at a depth of 29 miles (46 kilometers). The area is about 400 miles (650 kilometers) southeast of the capital, Manila.

The Philippines is in the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. A 7.7-magnitude quake killed nearly 2,000 people in Luzon in 1990.

The latest quake was set off by movement in an undersea fault, said Phivolcs chief Renato Solidum. Negros was rocked by an 8.2-magnitude quake in 1948 but it did not cause additional massive damage because the region was still reeling from the devastation of World War II, he said.