Powerful 7.8 Earthquake Strikes Off Southern Philippines, Triggering Tsunami Warnings Across the Pacific
The quake jolted Mindanao early Monday, collapsing buildings in General Santos City and prompting evacuation orders for nine provinces as waves of up to three meters were forecast.
A powerful earthquake struck off the southern Philippine island of Mindanao early Monday, collapsing buildings, knocking out power and setting off tsunami warnings that rippled across much of the western Pacific. The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude at 7.8, downgrading an initial estimate of 8.2, with the quake hitting at about 7:40 a.m. local time (23:40 GMT Sunday).
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cautioned that waves as high as three meters (nearly 10 feet) could strike Philippine coastlines, with one-meter waves possible in parts of Indonesia and Malaysia. Warnings extended much further afield, covering Japan, Taiwan, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, as authorities tracked the potential arrival of waves through the morning.
In General Santos City, a commercial and tuna-processing hub of more than 700,000 people, a three-story building that housed a Jollibee fast-food restaurant collapsed in a cloud of dust and debris, video posted to official channels showed. Other images revealed smashed windows and caved-in roofs across the area. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, PHIVOLCS, rated the shaking at intensity 7 out of 10 — "very strong" — and said it recorded more than an hour of aftershocks.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. activated the country's emergency response agencies, ordered schools closed in affected provinces and directed immediate evacuations in nine provinces along the threatened coastline. Officials urged residents in low-lying coastal zones to move to higher ground and stay away from beaches and riverbanks until the all-clear was given.
At least one death was reported in the immediate aftermath, though officials cautioned that the final toll had yet to be confirmed as rescue teams fanned out to assess collapsed structures and reach communities cut off by damaged roads and downed lines. It was not immediately clear whether anyone remained trapped in the buildings that gave way.
The Philippines sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of seismic faults and volcanoes where roughly 90 percent of the world's earthquakes occur, and the archipelago records hundreds of tremors each year. Monday's quake was among the strongest to hit the southern region in recent years, reviving memories of past disasters and underscoring the constant threat faced by tens of millions of people living along its restless coasts.
Originally reported by Al Jazeera.