Philippines Begins Recovery Efforts After Deadly Twin Earthquakes Kill Eight

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Dazed survivors of a pair of major earthquakes in the southern Philippines awoke on Saturday to scenes of devastation, after hundreds of aftershocks rocked the region overnight.

Many coastal residents of Mindanao island slept outdoors, fearful of being crushed to death by aftershocks of the 7.4 and 6.7-magnitude quakes that struck off the coast within hours of each other on Friday.

Philippine authorities said at least eight people were killed, but they were still assessing the extent of the damage.

In Manay, a municipality in Mindanao with a population of 40,000, residents were busy on Saturday morning clearing away debris and sweeping up shattered glass from homes and various other buildings.

A woman on a stretcher is carried by four men, an ambulance is behind her

In the earthquake-affected town of Manay, Davao Oriental province, in the southern Philippines, residents can be seen carrying a woman on a stretcher. Source: AP / Jeoffrey Maitem

“Our small house and our small store were destroyed,” resident Ven Lupogan said.

“We have nowhere to sleep. There’s no electricity. We have nothing to eat.”

A tsunami warning was issued for southern coastal areas of the archipelago nation, but it was later lifted.

800 aftershocks

Some people in Manay slept in tents, under improvised tarps and hammocks, inside vehicles, and on mats laid out in parks or the sides of streets as aftershocks rippled across the region of 1.8 million people.

At the heavily damaged Manay government hospital, patients lay on beds outside waiting for treatment.

Many had been wheeled out on Friday because government engineers said the building had been structurally compromised.

Residents gather under a tent in the earthquake-hit town of Manay. Source: AP / Jeoffrey Maitem

Nearby shopkeepers cleaned up broken glass and put merchandise back on shelves.

Vilma Lagnayo scrambled to save her family’s clothes and belongings from their collapsed Manay home.

“Reconstructing [our home] is difficult now … money is a problem,” Lagnayo said.

The Philippine seismology office has recorded more than 800 aftershocks since the first quake struck Mindanao, which is riddled by major faults. It said these are expected to last for weeks.

In Mati, about two hours’ drive southwest along the coast, Margarita Mulle and her relatives held a wake for her older sister, who had earlier died from disease, even as neighbours stayed away after tsunami warnings that have since been lifted.

“In case something happens, they [relatives] will carry the body using a ‘tora-tora’,” a tearful Mulle said, using a local term for a hand tractor-drawn cart that is a major mode of transport in rural areas of the south.

Earthquakes are a near-daily occurrence in the Philippines, which is situated on the Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’, an arc of intense seismic activity stretching from Japan through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin.