This
past Sunday, the Philippine island of Mindanao became the land of earthquakes
all over again. A major tremor of magnitude 6.9 shook the province of Davao del
Sur and its neighbors to a degree that recalled the earlier October quakes which
hit Cotabato province. Structural damage was extensive, if not devastating in
degree, but the earthquake that arrived in the afternoon of December 15 did
cause some casualties of note, victims of either a collapsed house near the
epicenter or a collapsed grocery store in the municipality of Padada. As of this
Tuesday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council has pegged the
latest number of deaths and injuries.
According to Inquirer.net, the NDRRMC has recorded seven fatalities so far as a
result of the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that originated from near Matanao in
Davao del Sur. The deaths have been reported in that province and in Davao
Occidental, while an added 49 people were said to have been injured. A
significant number of the fallen were from Padada town, those who were caught
up in the collapse of the Southern Trade grocery store. Tragically, one of them
was store employee Emily Gallegos, who managed to send a text message to her
family about her situation, but died of her wounds before being found.
Gallegos, who lived in Sulop
municipality, failed to exit her workplace before it fell on top of her and several
shoppers. Pinned under debris, she was able to send her text message by phone
to relatives early the following day, Monday December 16 at 4 AM. Her only
transmission mentioned four others trapped close to her. But Gallegos failed to
respond to any further replies from her worried family, and her dead body was found
by rescuers from Davao City’s Rescue 911 on Monday evening.
In the meantime, there are about
1,961 families with a total of 9,755 individuals that have been displaced from
no less than 12 Davao del Sur barangays according to the NDRRMC. A follow-up
report notes that these displace families have been divided up into 13 designated
evacuation centers around the province. From Davao del Sur to neighboring
Sarangani, there have been about 11 partially damaged school buildings and
seven completely destroyed buildings, part of a grand total of 36 public
structures to receive damage from this latest earthquake. Aftershocks were
logged at a total of 556 on Monday alone, though only 55 of them were strong
enough to be felt.
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