Over 1,000 in Bukidnon affected by Sunday quakes

By LITO RULONA
Correspondent

THE  Office of the Civil Defense has so far counted 1,303 people in Bukidnon alone who were either forced to flee their homes or whose houses were damaged or destroyed by Sunday’s earthquakes.

The OCD said initial reports showed that 439 families were badly affected there.

In Kalilangan town alone, at least 58 houses were destroyed in a report sent to the OCD by the town’s disaster risk reduction and management office.

Public school buildings were damaged, too. A dozen classrooms at the Lampanusan National High School and seven classrooms in Agaton Elementary School in Macaopao, Kalilangan were substantially damaged.

The OCD said some 364 houses were destroyed and damaged in the Kalilangan villages of  Lampanusan, Public, Macaopao, Ninoy Aquino and West Poblacion. Fifty-eight houses were destroyed, 158 were substantially damaged and 148 others were slightly damaged.

The magnitude 5.4 earthquake and the aftershocks were most felt in Bukidnon and Lanao del Sur.

But in Lanao del Sur, thePhilippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology recorded a series of seismic activities starting at 1:48 am Sunday.

At 4:47 am, an earthquake in Wao town was recorded at magnitude 5.4. By 5:17 am, Phivolcs recorded a magnitude 4.3; maginute 3.8 at 5:25 am; a magnitude 3.3 at 6:33 am; a magnitude 3.2 am at 7:56 am, a magnitude 3.0 at 10:32 am; and then a magnitude 4.0 at 10:39 am.

Phivolcs said people in Kalilangan felt an Intensity 6.

Kalilangan is about 18.4 kilometers from Wao.

Mae Acantilado, a resident of Barangay Macabalan, Cagayan de Oro, said she and her family were roused from sleep when the two-story house they were renting was rocked by a tremor early dawn Sunday.

“We were scared. Unlike other earthquakes we have experienced in the past, this one was strong,” she said.

The Sunday’s tremor left 10 persons injured, although the report signed by Maria Jessica Gumban, coordinator of a disaster risk reduction management office in Bukidnon, said they suffered “minor injuries.”

Bruce Augusto Colao, provincial director of the Department of Interior and Local Government in Bukidnon, led a team that conducted an onsite assessment Sunday afternoon. He said the local government unit must submit the town for geological assessment.

“Affected residents may have to be relocated,” he said.

Kalilangan officials reported other damages to government properties like barangay halls, roads, a bridge and water facilities.

The administrative building of Barangay Public was reported to be destroyed while the barangay hall, a multi-purpose building, and the barangay stage were damaged.

Damaged, too, were the barangay hall and health center of Barangay Macaopao. The health center and stage in Lampanusan as well as the multi-purpose drier in Macaopao were damaged, according to the report, using findings of initial assessment as of 4 pm Sunday.

Day Care centers for pre-school learners in two villages in Macaopao were not spared, including public stages in three neighborhood areas in the same village.

The Methodist Church in Central Poblacion, and a Roman Catholic chapel in Macaopao were damaged.

Only one lane is passable on a bridge in Ulayan in Barangay Malinao. There were minor cracks in the approach to the barangay road in Purok 5 and in the national road along Cogo, Macaopao, but officials said the roads are passable.

Land slipped in three areas along the road in Manipis in Purok 8, Barangay Public and along the barangay road in Purok 1 and 2 in the same village. Land slipped in the portion of the farm-to-market road in Agaton in Macaopao. Officials noted that except for the Agaton road, the roads are passable “for motorcycle only.”

The tremor affected the water source in four smaller villages, namely: Panamsamon, Kimagting, Janiuay and Kalagutay. They have to fetch water from Central Poblacion, which is around 10 minutes via motorcycle. (with reports from pna, and walter balane for mindanews)