Rescuers were forced to scramble from a partially collapsed grocery store in a southern Philippine city on Wednesday as a powerful aftershock rattled the region reeling from a devastating earthquake that killed at least 45 people and left 17 people missing.
In a frantic scene, a safety officer's whistle and screams warned nearly 30 firefighters and coast guard personnel to dash to safety as concrete debris crashed down from the leaning three-storey building in General Santos city.
“It was a strong aftershock and an alarm was immediately sounded so those inside and under the damaged building could run out for a headcount," Ressa Mia Tactaquin-Betoya, a spokesperson for firefighters searching for the last employee missing in the ruined grocery, explained. "It was scary.”
“We don’t want our rescuers to be harmed so the area must be secured before they can go back in."
More than 2,100 aftershocks, some strong enough to cause further damage, have followed Monday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake, according to Teresito Bacolcol of the Philippines Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
The disaster injured 630 people and damaged over 3,100 houses, roads and bridges as well as 100 government buildings. It also forced 32,000 people to flee their homes and over 25,000 of them remained in emergency shelters as of Wednesday, still too traumatised to go back, officials said.
Many of them had fled fearing a tsunami and while waves up to 1.4m above tide level were measured in the Philippines, the only reported tsunami damage was to six stilted shanties in a coastal village. Smaller waves reached Indonesia, Palau, and southern Japan.
The earthquake, centred off Mindanao, the country’s second-most populous island, left a trail of destruction, especially in General Santos, a coastal city of over 700,000 people regarded as the country’s tuna capital, where at least 13 people died from collapsing buildings and falling debris.
In Sarangani province, 18 fatalities were reported, primarily due to a landslide that engulfed houses in the mountainous town of Glan, according to Rafaelito Alejandro from the Office of Civil Defence.
More deaths were confirmed in the southern provinces of South Cotabato and Davao Occidental and on Balut Island.
Authorities said several of the collapsed and damaged structures needed thorough inspections for potential survivors or further casualties. They also said nearly 6,000 public schools in the affected provinces required to be evaluated before classes could resume.
The earthquake struck on the first day of school after a two-month summer break and many of the injured were young students attending morning flag-raising ceremonies.
Authorities have since issued warnings that buildings with cracks could collapse due to aftershocks, some of which have been dangerously powerful.
"We cannot force the immediate reopening of schools because we have to ensure the integrity of the buildings," Mr Alejandro stated.
The General Santos airport had been closed indefinitely, except for aid and military flights, said Eric Apolonio, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority.
The earthquake was centred at sea around 32km southwest of Maasim town in Sarangani province. It was triggered by movement in the Cotabato Trench and marked the strongest seismic event since the same undersea depression caused an 8.1-magnitude quake that generated tsunami waves on 17 August 1976.
Teresito Bacolcol, director of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, noted that about 8,000 people were killed by that earlier quake and its subsequent tsunami waves, which reached up to 10m and engulfed several towns.
The institute had planned to commemorate the 1976 earthquake’s anniversary in August by installing markers to remind vulnerable communities of the need for constant vigilance. A 1990 earthquake, also of magnitude 7.8, resulted in more than 1,000 deaths, thousands of injuries, and extensive damage in northern provinces and cities.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has sent senior defence and mitigation officials from Manila to oversee search and rescue operations, coordinate the distribution of food and construction materials to victims, and assess damage to vital infrastructure such as bridges and roads.
The US, a treaty ally of the Philippines, says it’s coordinating with Manila and stands ready to help with the response. Malaysia, France, Japan, and New Zealand have also expressed support.
The Philippines is frequently affected by earthquakes and volcanic eruptions due to its location on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of seismic faults encircling the ocean. The archipelago is also battered by 20 typhoons and tropical storms annually, making it one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.
