Philippines 7.6 earthquake: One dead, tsunami alert lifted

A magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck off the Philippines coast, causing one fatality. The earthquake knocked out power in some towns, but only triggered a small tsunami.

|
USGS
This US Geological Survey map shows the location of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake which struck off the coast of the Philippines Friday, Aug. 31, 2012.

 A 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck off the Philippines' eastern coast late Friday, killing one person in a house collapse, knocking out power in several towns and spurring panic about a tsunami that ended up generating only tiny waves.

The quake set off car alarms, shook items off shelves and sent many coastal residents fleeing for high ground before the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center lifted all tsunami alerts it had issued for the Philippines and neighboring countries from Indonesia to Japan, and for Pacific islands as far away as the Northern Marianas.

"It was very strong. My house was making sounds," Bemruel Noel, a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, said in a telephone interview from Tacloban city on the eastern coast of Leyte island, where the quake set off a small stampede of residents.

"You talk to God with an earthquake that strong," he said.

RELATED: 5 most devastating quakes in Asia

Tacloban resident Digna Marco said the quake toppled a figurine on top of her TV set and that her son had to hold their desktop computer to prevent it from falling to the floor. The lights over her dining room were swinging, she said.

One house collapsed in southern Cagayan de Oro city, on the main southern island of Mindanao, killing a 54-year-old woman and injuring her 5-year-old grandson, who was being treated in a hospital, said the city's mayor, Vicente Emano.

The quake generated only very small tsunami waves of about 3 centimeters (just over an inch) along the eastern Philippine coast near Legazpi city and another nearby location, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

Initial tsunami warnings had prompted many residents to head inland.

"My neighbors and I have evacuated. We are now on our way to the mountains," fisherman Marlon Lagramado told The Associated Press before the warnings were lifted, in a telephone interview from the coastal town of Guiwan in the Philippine province of Eastern Samar.

Benito Ramos, a retired general who heads the country's disaster-response agency, said in an advisory broadcast nationwide that residents should be on the alert for more quakes.

"Don't sleep, especially those in the eastern seaboard ... because there might be aftershocks," he said.

The quake, with preliminary magnitude 7.6, hit at a depth of 34.9 kilometers (21.7 miles) and was centered 106 kilometers (66 miles) east of Samar Island, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake knocked out power in several towns and cities across the central and southern Philippines, though it was restored in some areas later Friday, according to rescuers and local radio reports.

The Philippine archipelago is located in the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. A magnitude-7.7 quake killed nearly 2,000 people in northern Luzon Island in 1990.

RELATED: 5 most devastating quakes in Asia

___

Associated Press writers Hrvoje Hranjski and Oliver Teves contributed to this report.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Philippines 7.6 earthquake: One dead, tsunami alert lifted
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0831/Philippines-7.6-earthquake-One-dead-tsunami-alert-lifted
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe