The death toll from the Philippines earthquake has reached 41, and outdoor hospitals and communities are isolated from the outside world
Doctors treated patients in tents under the scorching sun in the Philippines on Tuesday, including helping a young mother give birth. The death toll has exceeded 40 people after a massive earthquake collapsed buildings and triggered tsunami warnings.
Thousands of people are still displaced and more than 450 injured after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck southern Mindanao on Monday, but only four people are believed to be missing, according to national and local disaster relief agencies.
In hard-hit Sarangani province, some areas remain only accessible by helicopter and concerns about aftershocks are slowing rescue efforts, local officials told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday.
Rodrigo Sosmena, regional civil protection chief, said: “Aftershocks are still present, so rescuers are acting with great caution. It is a challenge.”
About two hours after the first quake, a series of powerful aftershocks struck the area, followed by hundreds of smaller earthquakes.
Meanwhile, damage to infrastructure means some communities will be cut off for at least a week due to damaged roads and collapsed bridges.
At a hospital outside General Santos, the region’s largest city, AFP reporters heard cries of “push” and then the cry of a baby as the mother gave birth outdoors behind a makeshift screen.
In the city of Glan, at least 13 people were buried in their homes by landslides, and staff at another hospital told AFP that more than 60 patients were lying in beds outside the hospital amid concerns about the structural integrity of the building.
“The hospital has suffered a lot,” she said. “The city engineer decided we couldn’t use the building.”
As of Tuesday morning, provincial sources contacted by AFP put the death toll at 41.
– recover –
Outside a collapsed grocery store in General Santos City, rescuers continued their efforts after a night’s rest to rescue two clerks who were inside when the building collapsed.
AFP reporters watched as rescue dogs and their handlers searched for broken concrete and jagged metal rods.
A local rescue worker told reporters that the current effort was recovery rather than rescue, although a more senior official later insisted that no formal decision had been made.
At a nearby beach resort, a high-speed Coast Guard vessel plied the waters to rescue two people who went missing while swimming in waters that churned violently when the quake hit.
Video posted to social media on Monday and verified by AFP showed the catastrophic collapse of a shopping mall housing a Jollibee fast food restaurant and the collapse of another unoccupied school building in General Santos City.
In another video verified by AFP, primary school children could be seen screaming in the arms of their teachers as the quake rocked them violently back and forth on the ground.
As the video uploaded to the school’s official Facebook page ends, a fragile metal structure can be seen collapsing in the background. An accompanying caption said no one was underneath the building when it collapsed.
The quake prompted thousands of people to evacuate in the southern Philippines and off the coast of neighboring Indonesia as multiple national and regional tsunami warning centers issued tsunami warnings.
But by midday, the threat had passed and the alert was cancelled.
The waves that did reach Japan’s Pacific coast were reported to be no more than 20 centimeters high, and authorities have issued tsunami warnings there.
In October, two earthquakes with magnitudes 7.4 and 6.7 struck eastern Mindanao, killing at least eight people.
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This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
