Powerful 7.8 Earthquake Off Mindanao Kills Dozens, Topples Buildings in General Santos
The quake struck off the southern Philippines at dawn Monday, collapsing a hospital, a supermarket and a restaurant and triggering tsunami warnings across the Pacific before they were largely lifted.
A powerful magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern Philippine island of Mindanao early Monday, killing at least 32 people, injuring more than 100 and toppling buildings across General Santos, a coastal city of roughly 722,000 that bore the brunt of the damage.
The quake hit shortly before 7:40 a.m. local time, as commuters filled the streets and children prepared for school. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, PHIVOLCS, recorded more than an hour of aftershocks rolling through the region. In General Santos, a three-story Jollibee restaurant pancaked, a two-story supermarket collapsed — killing a supervisor inside, according to GMA News — and St. Elizabeth Hospital sustained severe structural damage, forcing staff to evacuate patients into the streets.
"The cars on the road were moving erratically," said Mary Ann Blanco Rhudy, a Catholic nun who felt the shaking. "The trees on the side of the road were also swaying violently." Residents described scrambling for open ground as facades crumbled and power flickered out across neighborhoods.
The U.S.-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially issued alerts across a wide swath of the Pacific, and small tsunami waves were recorded in Guam, Palau, parts of Indonesia and Japan. Most advisories were canceled within hours, though an advisory lingered for Japan's southern coast and outlying islands. Authorities urged coastal residents to stay away from beaches until the all-clear.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered classes suspended across affected areas of Mindanao, a decision that touched an estimated 3.2 million students and 128,000 school personnel. "The safety of our children comes first," Marcos said. Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon flew to General Santos to assess the damage and ordered immediate inspections of bridges, highways and public buildings before they could be reopened.
The Philippines sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," a horseshoe-shaped belt of seismic and volcanic activity where the bulk of the world's largest earthquakes occur, and the archipelago records hundreds of tremors each year. Monday's quake was among the most destructive to strike Mindanao in recent memory. Rescue teams worked through the day to reach people believed trapped in the rubble of collapsed structures, while officials warned that the death toll could climb as crews completed searches. Hospitals outside the worst-hit zones reported a surge of patients with crush injuries and fractures, and aid agencies began mobilizing relief for thousands of residents wary of returning to damaged homes amid continuing aftershocks.
Originally reported by Al Jazeera.