Southern California rocked by strongest quake in two decades

LOS ANGELES, United States — Southern California was rocked by its largest earthquake in two decades on Thursday, a 6.4-magnitude tremor that caused "substantial damage" at a military facility but otherwise only minor injuries in the sparsely populated area.

The shallow quake, followed by dozens of aftershocks, struck in the Mojave Desert six miles (10 kilometers) from the small city of Ridgecrest at 10:33 am (1733 GMT).

It was felt 160 miles away in Los Angeles and even as far afield as Las Vegas in the neighboring state of Nevada, as the United States celebrated its July 4 Independence Day holiday.

Although the quake in the most populous US state of California revived fears of the "Big One"—a powerful tremor along the San Andreas Fault that could devastate major cities in Southern California—President Trump was quick to reassure that this wasn't it.

"All seems to be very much under control!" he tweeted two hours after the quake in the Searles Valley of San Bernardino County.

The area "will continue having a lot of aftershocks," some maybe as strong as magnitude five, California Institute of Technology seismologist Lucy Jones told a press conference.

The earthquake was the largest in Southern California since 1999 when a 7.1-magnitude quake struck the Twentynine Palms Marine Corps base, according to The Los Angeles Times.

Thursday's epicenter was in or on the edge of the US Navy's sprawling desert bomb testing range known as China Lake.

The Naval Air Weapons Station covers 1.1 million acres (445,000 hectares) and strictly controls the airspace above it. Inside, the Navy develops and tests missiles, bombs, artillery shells and other war ordnance, and the aircraft used to deliver it.

An official at China Lake told AFP there was "substantial damage" to their facilities, including fires, water leaks and spills of hazardous materials.

Paul Dale, the station's commanding officer, said later at a news conference that officials were making "damage assessments," and declined to elaborate.

Panic 

David Witt, the fire chief in Kern County which includes Ridgecrest, reported "minor, minor injuries," stemming from broken glass and shelves falling down in supermarkets.

He was not able to provide an exact number of casualties.

Peggy Breeden, mayor of Ridgecrest which has a population of 28,000, said the local hospital had been evacuated as a precaution, and she had received reports of a handful of house fires.

Some areas of the city had lost power, while gas had been cut due to ruptured lines, she said.

The San Bernardino County Fire Department said that "buildings and roads have sustained varying degrees of damage."

This included "buildings with minor cracks, broken water mains, power lines down, rock slides on certain roads."

The quake struck at a depth of 6.6 miles (10.7 kilometers) in the vast desert region.

Residents told local TV that the shaking set off panic, while sending televisions plunging to the ground and causing drawers to fall open.

AFP reporters in Los Angeles clearly felt the earthquake for about 10 seconds.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said there was no significant damage in the second-largest US city.

'Even bigger earthquake' 

Jones said there is a small possibility this quake is the prelude to a larger one.

"There is about a one-in-20 chance that this location will be having an even bigger earthquake within the next few days, that we have not yet seen the biggest earthquake of the sequence," she said.

"There have been hundreds of earthquakes today," she said, including more than 100 that the United States Geological Survey measured at greater than magnitude 2.5.

But Jones noted that the quake was not along the San Andreas fault.

"It is an area with a lot of little faults but no long fault," she tweeted.

For filmmaker Ava DuVernay, a lifelong resident of Los Angles, "that was the longest earthquake I've ever experienced. Not jerky. Smooth and rolling. But it was loooong."

source: philstar.com

Strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake rocks India

NEW DELHI, India — A strong 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh early Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said.

The epicenter of the shallow quake was about 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Along, and 180 kilometres southwest of the state capital Itanagar.

It struck at 1:45 am (2015 GMT Tuesday).

Arunachal Pradesh is India's least densely populated state, but is still home to more than 1.2 million people, according to the state government's website.

China's official state news agency Xinhua said the quake was felt in Tibet, which neighbors the Indian state.

New Delhi and Beijing for decades have disputed control of Arunachal Pradesh -- a dispute that remains unresolved.

India considers Arunachal Pradesh one of its northeastern states, while China claims about 90,000 square kilometres (34,750 square miles) of the territory.

Arunachal Pradesh also borders Myanmar and Bhutan.

USGS estimated there was a "low likelihood" of casualties and damage from the quake.

source: philstar.com

Psei down in morning trade as investors digest Luzon quake aftermath

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine shares were in the red at the end of the morning trade Tuesday as investors digest the aftermath of a magnitude 6.1 earthquake that struck Luzon on Monday.

As of market recess Tuesday, the bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index was down 0.72% or 55.97 points to 7,776.46. The broader All Shares index was also in the negative territory, down 0.41% or 19.75 points to 4,814.93.

“Investors may remain on the sidelines as they gather more information regarding the aftermath of last night's earthquake. If there's any indication, Philippine iShares were slightly down -0.61% to 34.46,” Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital said in a market commentary.


Authorities say that as of mid-morning on Monday, 11 people have been confirmed dead in the aftermath of the earthquake.

The quake — which was tectonic in origin — hit Castillejos, Zambales at around 5:11 p.m. Monday. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology earlier recorded a magnitude 5.7 quake before revising it to magnitude 6.1.

A total of 447 aftershocks were recorded as of 10 a.m. Tuesday following the tremor that hit Luzon and swayed buildings in Metro Manila.

‘Cautious’

Stocks were generally lower in Asian trade on Tuesday as investors move cautiously ahead of a deluge of corporate results later in the week.

Tokyo stocks were trading down with profit-taking before 10 days of holidays in Japan weighing on the market.

With many markets opening after an extended Easter break, Hong Kong Shanghai, Taiwan, Singapore were all down, while Australia and Seoul were trading up.

"Some of the world's biggest technology companies are reporting earnings this week as well as a raft of the big European banks," Nick Twidale, chief operating officer at Rakuten Securities Australia, said in a note to clients.

"Investors will be hoping for some better-than-expected results from both groups to keep the topside momentum in global equities, however if the data starts to show a significant slowing across these key industries then expect both stocks and risk trades to start to come under some heavy pressure."

Major earnings releases expected this week include Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Exxon Mobil and auto maker Tesla.

Aerospace giant Boeing will report earnings on Wednesday for the first time since a deadly March 10 plane crash plunged the company into crisis-mode. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral with AFP

source: philstar.com

Indonesia raises quake-tsunami death toll to 1,234

JAKARTA, Indonesia — The Indonesian government on Tuesday said the death toll from a devastating quake-tsunami on the island of Sulawesi had risen to 1,234 people, up from the previous count of 844.

"As of 1:00 pm there are 1,234 dead," said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, the national disaster agency spokesman.

source: philstar.com

Mass burials to begin as Indonesia toll tops 800

PALU, Indonesia — The death toll from Indonesia's quake and tsunami disaster nearly doubled to 832 Sunday and was expected to rise further, prompting authorities to announce mass burials in a desperate attempt to stave off disease.

As shattered survivors scoured make-shift morgues for loved ones, and authorities struggled to dig out the living or assess the scale of the devastation beyond the city of Palu, grim warnings came that the eventual toll could reach thousands.

"The casualties will keep increasing," said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, whose agency announced the jump in the toll from 420 earlier.

"Today we will start the mass burial of victims, to avoid the spread of disease."

Rescuers on Sulawesi island raced against the clock and a lack of equipment to save those still trapped in the rubble, with up to 60 people feared to be underneath one Palu hotel alone. Rescuers said they heard voices and a child's cries from under the rubble.

In a post to Twitter, the disaster agency spokesman also warned residents to be alert to the hoax forecasts of further tsunamis and earthquakes he said were appearing on social media.

Desperate survivors, now facing a third straight night sleeping outdoors, turned to looting shops for basics like food, water and fuel as police looked on, unwilling or unable to intervene.

The government was left with little option but to promise it would reimburse owners.

"Record everything taken, inventories it. We will pay for it all," said security minister Wiranto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

One survivor, Adi, was hugging his wife by the beach when the tsunami struck on Friday. Like countless others he has no idea where she is now, or whether she is alive.

"When the wave came, I lost her," he said. "I was carried about 50 metres. I couldn't hold anything. The water was spinning me around," he said.

"This morning I went back to the beach, I found my motorbike and my wife's wallet."

Others have centred their search around open-air morgues, where the dead lay in the baking sun -- waiting to be claimed, waiting to be named.

- Help at hand? -

Indonesian President Joko Widodo visited the region Sunday afternoon, urging a "day and night" effort to save all those who can be saved.

But disaster agency spokesman Nugroho indicated sheer power of will may not be enough.

"Communication is limited, heavy machinery is limited... it's not enough for the numbers of buildings that collapsed," he said.

Still, as dire as the situation in Palu was, it was at least clear. In outlying areas, the fate of thousands is still unknown.

Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla said the final death toll in the north of Sulawesi island could be in the "thousands" since many regions have still not been reached.

Indonesia’s Metro TV on Sunday broadcast aerial footage from a coastal community in Donggala, close to the epicentre of the quake. Some waterfront homes appeared crushed but a resident said most people fled to higher ground after the quake struck.

"When it shook really hard, we all ran up into the hills," a man identified as Iswan told the TV.

The 7.5-magnitude quake struck Friday, sparking a tsunami that ripped apart Palu's coastline.

Save The Children program director Tom Howells said access was a "huge issue" hampering relief efforts.

"Aid agencies and local authorities are struggling to reach several communities around Donggala, where we are expecting there to be major damage and potential large-scale loss of life," Howells said.

The national disaster agency said it believed about 71 foreigners were in Palu when the quake struck, with most safe.

Three French nationals and a South Korean, who may have been staying at a flattened hotel, had not yet been accounted for, it added.

Getting enough aid in may prove a problem.

Satellite imagery provided by regional relief teams showed severe damage at some of the area's major ports, with large ships tossed on land, quays and bridges trashed and shipping containers thrown around.

A double-arched yellow bridge had collapsed, its ribs twisted as cars bobbed in the water below.

A key access road had been badly damaged and was partially blocked by landslides.

"People here need aid -- food, drink, clean water," said Anser Bachmid, a 39-year-old Palu resident.

- Far and wide -

Friday's tremor was also felt in the far south of the island in its largest city Makassar and on neighbouring Kalimantan, Indonesia's portion of Borneo island.

As many as 2.4 million people could have felt the quake, it is believed.

The initial quake struck as evening prayers were about to begin in the world's biggest Muslim majority country on the holiest day of the week.

As news of the scale of the disaster spread, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert conveyed "condolences and support" and said that the US was "ready to assist in the relief effort."

From the Vatican, Pope Francis offered prayers for victims.

source: philstar.com

Toll from Japan quake rises to 18 as hopes fade for survivors

TOKYO, Japan — Japanese rescue workers with bulldozers and sniffer dogs scrabbled through the mud Friday to find survivors from a landslide that buried houses after a powerful quake, as the death toll rose to 18.

Around 22 people are still unaccounted for in the small northern countryside town of Atsuma, where a cluster of dwellings were wrecked when a hillside collapsed with the force of the 6.6-magnitude quake, causing deep brown scars in the landscape.


"We've heard there are people still stuck under the mud, so we've been working around the clock but it's been difficult to rescue them," a Self-Defense Forces serviceman in Atsuma told public broadcaster NHK.

"We will take measures to find them quickly."

An elderly woman in Atsuma told NHK: "My relative is still buried under the mud and has not been found yet, so I couldn't sleep at all last night. There were also several aftershocks so it was a restless night."

Around 1.6 million households in the sparsely populated northern island of Hokkaido were still without power after the quake damaged a thermal plant supplying electricity to the region.

Industry minister Hiroshige Seko said that number should be reduced to 550,000 households on Friday.

"It will take about a week" before the largest thermal power plant recovers, "so during that period, we are sending power-generating vehicles to hospitals," Seko told reporters.

He urged citizens to conserve energy by having fewer lights on in shops and restaurants and "for example family members staying together in one room".

Some 22,000 rescue workers including troops called up from the Self-Defense Forces handed out emergency water supplies and long lines formed at petrol stations and supermarkets, as people stocked up fearing further quakes.

"Please give your sympathy to people who spent a dark night in fear, and do everything you can to restore electricity as soon as possible," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a cabinet meeting to discuss the quake.

The earthquake, which scored the maximum on a Japanese scale measuring the power of a quake's shaking, also collapsed a handful of houses and walls in the main city of Sapporo.

However, considering the strength of the quake, the death toll was relatively light, with the majority of victims coming from the landslide in Atsuma.

- 'Pay attention' -

Transport services were gradually coming back on line with bullet trains resuming operations late Friday morning and the main airport in Sapporo operating a partial service after cancelling all flights the day before.

But a football friendly between Japan and Chile in Sapporo planned on Friday was scrapped due to the transport and power chaos in Hokkaido.

The quake was the latest in a string of natural disasters to batter the country.

Western parts of the country are still recovering from the most powerful typhoon to strike Japan in a quarter of a century, which claimed 11 lives and shut down the main regional airport.

And officials warned of the danger of fresh quakes.

"Large quakes often occur, especially within two to three days (of a big one)," said Toshiyuki Matsumori, in charge of monitoring earthquakes and tsunamis at the meteorological agency.

The risk of housing collapses and landslides had increased, he said, urging residents "to pay full attention to seismic activity and rainfall and not to go into dangerous areas".

Japan sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where many of the world's earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are recorded.

In June, a deadly tremor rocked the Osaka region, killing five people and injuring over 350.

On March 11, 2011, a devastating 9.0-magnitude quake struck under the Pacific Ocean, and the resulting tsunami caused widespread damage and claimed thousands of lives.

source: philstar.com

Mexican quake death toll rises to 90 as Oaxaca reports more fatalities

MEXICO CITY – The death toll from the massive earthquake that struck Mexico on Thursday night has risen to at least 90 after emergency services in the southern state of Oaxaca said late on Saturday there had been 71 confirmed fatalities in the state alone.

“It’s 71 (dead). Just for Oaxaca,” said Jesus Gonzalez, a spokesman for the state civil protection authority.

At least 15 people died in the neighboring state of Chiapas, according to local authorities, while another four deaths have also been confirmed in the state of Tabasco to the north.

The 8.1 magnitude quake that struck off the coast of Chiapas on Thursday was stronger than a devastating 1985 temblor that flattened swathes of Mexico City and killed thousands.

Relief efforts in the south continued through Saturday, with many of the people worst affected still wary of returning indoors to weakened buildings, fearing they could be brought down by ongoing aftershocks.

source: interaksyon.com

Strong 6.3-magnitude quake strikes off Pakistan - USGS

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan --  A strong 6.3-magnitude earthquake struck near the coast of Pakistan early Wednesday, the US Geological Survey said.

The shallow quake struck at 3:03 am (2203 GMT), with an epicenter just 23 kilometers (14 miles) southwest of Pakistan's coastal city of Pasni, the USGS said.

Last April, a large 6.6-magnitude quake struck neighbouring northeastern Afghanistan, rattling parts of South Asia and killing at least six Pakistanis.

In October 2015, a 7.5-magnitude quake in Pakistan and Afghanistan killed almost 400 people, flattening buildings in rugged terrain that impeded relief efforts.

Pakistan straddles part of the boundary where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet, making the country susceptible to earthquakes.

It was hit by a 7.6-magnitude quake on October 8, 2005 that killed more than 73,000 people and left about 3.5 million homeless, mainly in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.

source: interaksyon.com

Strong 6.4-magnitude quake hits southwestern Japan

TOKYO - A strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake hit Japan's southwestern island of Kyushu on Thursday, but there was no danger of a tsunami, local authorities said.

The quake, which the US Geological Survey measured at 6.0, struck at 9:26 p.m. (1226 GMT) in Kumamoto, central Kyushu at a relatively shallow depth of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The quake was followed about 30 minutes later by another smaller one with a magnitude of 5.7, the agency said. That quake also did not generate a tsunami warning.

Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported that some buildings had collapsed on Kyushu with people possibly trapped, though details were scarce.

Cameras set up by NHK showed violent shaking at the time of the quake, which was felt throughout Kyushu.

Japanese media reported that shinkansen, or bullet, train service was halted on the island.

NHK showed some damage including broken concrete. Residents stood outside making calls on mobile phones.

Watermelons fell from store shelves and lay crushed on the floor of a supermarket in Kumamoto city, near the epicenter, NHK footage showed.

Objects fell from shelves and staff ducked under desks as the quake shook the NHK office in Kumamoto, video showed.

“We intend to do the utmost to grasp the situation," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters. "I’m now planning to hear what we have gathered on the situation."

Kyushu Electric Co. said it was checking conditions at its Genkai and Sendai nuclear plants.

An official at the Sendai nuclear plant in Kyushu, who declined to be named, said the plant was operating normally but that officials were checking for any abnormalities.

There were no irregularities at the Genkai or Sendai nuclear plants, which are on the southernmost main island of Kyushu, or at the Ikata plant on nearby Shikkoku, the Kyodo news agency reported.

Japan sits at the junction of four tectonic plates and experiences around 20 percent of the world's most powerful earthquakes.

But rigid building codes and strict enforcement mean even powerful tremors frequently do little damage.

A massive undersea quake that hit on March 11, 2011, sent a tsunami barrelling into Japan's northeast coast, leaving about 18,500 people dead or missing, and sending several reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant in the worst atomic accident in a generation.

source: interaksyon.com

Magnitude-6.3 quake strikes off Alaska

SAN FRANCISCO -- A strong earthquake struck off Saturday Atka Island in southwest Alaska, the northern most US state.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the tremor, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, hit about 32 km deep at 8:06 local time, some 65 km off Atka in the Andreanof Islands, or 1,815 km west of Anchorage, the biggest city of Alaska.

Andreanof Islands are part of the Aleutian Islands.

There have been no reports of injuries from the sparsely populated islands.

The US Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said the quake was not strong enough to generate a tsunami.

source: interaksyon.com

One dead in Central America quake

SAN SALVADOR - Aftershocks rattled Central America on Tuesday after a powerful 7.3-magnitude earthquake struck offshore, killing one person, damaging homes and scaring people into spending the night outside.

The rumble was felt from southern Mexico to Panama when the quake shook the region late Monday, briefly triggering a tsunami alert.

El Salvador was hardest hit, with officials reporting 14 wrecked homes, damage to a hospital and power outages.

"It was strong when it started to rumble, and it would not stop. My family just prayed and asked God for it to stop," Maria Etelvina Deras, a resident of Usulutan, 110 kilometers (68 miles) southeast of San Salvador, told YSKL radio.

In San Miguel, 135 kilometers (84 miles) east of San Salvador, a man was killed when an electrical pylon fell on him, the city's mayor Wilfredo Salgado told the radio station.

Jorge Melendez, El Salvador's civil protection chief, said the damage was still being assessed nationwide.

People slept outdoors in the most affected areas as 11 aftershocks rattled nerves, including a 4.1-magnitude temblor, according to Salvadoran authorities.

"All I could see was that things in the house were moving, and my wife grabbed me and took me out to the courtyard of the house and we waited for it to stop. It was ugly," said Ruben Aguirre in Zacatecoluca, another town southeast of the capital.

At least 17 aftershocks shook Nicaragua, including a 5.0-magnitude earthquake, according to the Nicaraguan Territorial Studies Institute.

In Nicaragua, minor damage was reported in some 2,000 homes made of adobe or wood, while some hospitals were evacuated as a precaution.

The quake hit in the Pacific Ocean, 170 kilometers (105 miles) southeast of the capital San Salvador, at a depth of 70 kilometers (44 miles), the US Geological Survey said.

'Like a rocking boat'
The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center quickly issued a warning for coastal areas located within 300 kilometers (190 miles) of the epicenter, but lifted the alert minutes later.

The tremor was felt in the Nicaraguan capital Managua and other cities, prompting people to flee into the street and onto patios while electricity went out momentarily.

"It was like being rocked in a boat," said Lorena Galo, who lives in Managua.

Coastal residents fled their homes but began to return after the danger subsided on Tuesday.

Still, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega declared a preventive state of alert along the coast due to aftershocks and schools were closed nationwide.

Electricity and phone service in some areas of Nicaragua were cut off.

In the port city of Corinto, people fled inland in cars or on foot, Radio Ya reported.

The quake was also felt strongly in Honduras and Guatemala, but there were no reports of casualties or major damage.

A 5.3 magnitude aftershock was felt in Costa Rica.

source: interaksyon.com

Magnitude-5.1 quake rattles Los Angeles

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck near Los Angeles on Friday, rattling a wide swath of Southern California, the US Geological Survey said.

There were no immediate reports of damage or injury from the temblor, centered outside suburban La Habra, about 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles, a Los Angeles Police Department spokeswoman said.

"However the earthquake just happened a few minutes ago so we have to give our officers the time to do an inspection," the spokeswoman said.

The quake, initially reported as a magnitude 5.3, struck shortly after 9 p.m. pacific time and was very shallow, only 1.2 miles deep, according to the USGS.

It was felt across four counties, as far east as Palm Springs and north as Ventura County.

source: interaksyon.com

Engineers working to fully restore Sun Cellular mobile services in Bohol, Cebu

Operations of Sun Cellular in Bohol and Cebu—which were hard-hit by a major earthquake this morning—have been affected, the company said in a statement.

However, engineers are “working to normalize services shortly,” said Smart Communications Inc., which acquired Sun Cellular, in a statement.

Smart also said that its mobile phone service in Bohol and Cebu remains “remains largely operational despite the damage inflicted on some cell sites and network facilities by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that hit Central Visayas early this morning.”

Since electricity is unavailable in parts of Bohol and Cebu, Smart will be “deploying generator sets to power key cell sites and keep mobile phone and internet services running,” the company said in an announcement.

“We are also setting up free call services and free mobile phone charging stations in affected towns and municipalities to assist residents as well as emergency agencies involved in rescue and relief operations,” it added.

Smart Communications Inc. is the mobile phone unit of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), which is led by Manuel V. Pangilinan, who also chairs TV-5.

source: interaksyon.com

Earthquake shuts down Cebu BPO industry for a few hours

MANILA – Business process outsourcing (BPO) companies in Cebu have resumed operations hours after a strong quake struck many parts of Central Visayas this morning.

In a statement, the Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) said call centers in Cebu temporarily stopped operations this morning “to ensure the safety of thousands of employees.”

A 7.2-magnitude quake shook Central Visayas around 8:00 a.m., causing damage to many structures in the provinces of Cebu and Bohol.

Citing a report by the Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (CEDF-IT), Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP) president and chief executive Jose Mari P. Mercado told InterAksyon.com that there were “no reports of damage” so far among BPO companies operating in Cebu.

“Evacuations occurred, but [operations] back to normal now. All on heightened alert for aftershocks and prepared to evacuate if necessary. Safety of our employees is paramount,” Mercado said.

“Several buildings have been safely evacuated immediately after the earthquake and are undergoing structural assessments for safety by the building owners and their engineers. Re-entry into the buildings will only commence once the buildings have been cleared that they are safe,” CCAP president Benedict C. Hernandez said, adding that “the safety of contact center employees in the affected provinces is its number one priority.”

Cebu hosts about 100 BPO firms, while the rest of Central Visayas is home to about 20 companies, Mercado said. About 70,000 people are employed by Cebu-based outsourcing firms.

Most of the firms within the Cebu Business and IT Park are contact centers, which “have business continuity plans that we follow for such events… ensuring their employees are guided to ensure their safety and welfare,” Hernandez said.

Cebu City ranked 8th in global advisory firm Tholons’ 2013 Top 100 Outsourcing Destinations report.

source: interaksyon.com

Quake destroys Cebu, Bohol historical, tourist sites

MANILA, Philippines -- The 7.2-magnitude earthquake that struck Central Visayas including Bohol and Cebu destroyed centuries worth of history and valuable tourism assets.

In Bohol, the quake left portions of the Loon and Loboc Churches in rubble. Local officials said it would take time to rebuild.

"Loboc Church is a 17th century church which is a major tourism draw," Rep. Arthur Yap of Bohol's third district, where the church is located, told InterAksyon.com.

In a separate interview, Cebu Representative Ace Durano said the churches of Bohol are very much part of the heritage of Boholanos.

"This reflects the Boholanos' deep appreciation of their cultural assets and reflects their deep religiosity. The fact that these churches are very much part of the lives of the Boholanos render them valuable tourism assets," Durano, former secretary of the Department of Tourism, said.

The Church of San Pedro in Loboc, the second oldest church in Bohol, was built in 1602 but was damaged by fire. In 1638, a more sturdy structure was built, according to the website www.bohol.ph. As it was located near the river, it has survived a number of floods, but remained standing.

The church features paintings on the ceiling, and a Spanish coat of arms can be found in the stone wall near the entrance of the convent. Its bell tower is about 100 meters from the church. Attached to the structure is a three-story convent, which houses the Museo de Loboc on the third floor. The museum keeps old statues of saints and some religious artifacts.

The church is also famous for the Loboc Children's Choir, a school-based chorale of school children from the Loboc Central Elementary School. Founded in 1980, the choir has held concerts all over the country and abroad, and has won several awards.

The Church of Our Lady of Light in Loon, the biggest church in Bohol, was built during the term of Fray Manuel de Elizalde in 1753. The building has two octagonal bell towers, and is fully symmetric. From Loon Church is a long stairway of 174 stone steps connecting it to Napo, the former seat of the town.

The other old churches in Bohol are the Baclayon Church and Dauis Church--both of which were also damaged by the quakes--and Maribojoc Church and Panglao Church.

Unfortunately, according to Australian experts, these beautiful historic churches in Bohol and Cebu were obviously not built to withstand a magnitude 7.2 earthquake.

In Cebu City, the Basilica Del Sto Nino also was not spared as its belfry crumbled during the quake while the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral also sustained damage.

source: interaksyon.com

Man, 78, rescued 5 days after deadly China quake

BEIJING -- A 78-year-old man has been rescued five days after an earthquake hit southwestern China, killing 196 and making thousands homeless, state media reported Thursday.

He was found by rescuers "on a hilltop" in Muping township, in Baoxing County, Xinhua said, without giving further details of the rescue operation.

"The man suffered a rib fracture but is in a stable condition," the report said, adding that he was taken to Baoxing People's Hospital by helicopter.

The state news agency said he was the first person to be rescued since the crucial first 72-hours after the earthquake, which the US Geological Survey registered at magnitude 6.6.

Tens of thousands of people have been left homeless after the quake struck Saturday morning, causing widespread devastation in Sichuan province.

Rescue teams have been hampered by blocked roads caused by landslides and traffic congestion in their hunt for survivors.

source: interaksyon.com

More than 150 dead in China quake, thousands injured

At least 152 people were killed and 3,000 injured when a strong earthquake shook southwest China Saturday, wrecking homes and triggering landslides in an area devastated by a major tremor in 2008.

The shallow earthquake struck Sichuan on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau just after 8:00 a.m., triggering a major rescue operation in the province where 87,000 people were reported dead or missing five years ago.

Eight hours after the quake hit Lushan county in the city of Ya'an, the death toll stood at 102, CCTV news said, quoting the China Earthquake Administration. At least 10,000 homes were destroyed, the Sichuan government said.

Local seismologists registered the quake at magnitude 7.0 while the US Geological Survey gave it as 6.6. More than 260 aftershocks followed, the People's Daily said on its website.

The shaking was felt in the provincial capital Chengdu, which lies to the east, and even in the megacity of Chongqing several hundred kilometers away.

Panicked residents fled into the streets, some of them still in their slippers and pajamas.

"Members of my family were woken up. They were lying in bed when the strong shaking began and the wardrobes began shaking strongly," said a 43-year-old Chongqing resident surnamed Wang. "We grabbed our clothes and ran outside."

About 6,000 soldiers and police were heading to the area to help rescue work, the Xinhua news agency said.

Some had to contend with roads blocked by debris, CCTV reported, while one military vehicle carrying 17 troops plummeted over a cliff, killing one soldier and injuring seven others, Xinhua said.

"There are mountains on all sides, it is very easy to trigger mudslides and very dangerous," one user wrote on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter.

The disaster evoked comparisons to the 2008 Sichuan quake, the country's worst in decades, and President Xi Jinping ordered all out efforts to minimize casualties, Xinhua said.

Premier Li Keqiang arrived in Sichuan in the afternoon and was taking a helicopter to the quake zone.

"The current most urgent issue is grasping the first 24 hours since the quake's occurrence, the golden time for saving lives," he was quoted as saying.

Amid the rescue efforts, a 30-year-old pregnant woman surnamed Zhao was pulled out of the rubble along with a young child and sent to hospital for treatment, the People's Daily said on its Weibo account.

A local TV journalist due to get married on Saturday turned up instead for work and a photograph of her reporting on the disaster in her wedding dress with bright makeup and a corsage was widely circulated on Weibo.

Meanwhile Ya'an residents were offering to donate badly needed blood, the People's Daily said.

But volunteers outside the city were discouraged from flocking to Ya'an to help with relief efforts, Xinhua said, to avoid blocking already busy phone lines and worsening road congestion.

"A fair amount of telecoms facilities have been damaged," it said.

Three reservoirs in the area had shown cracks and people downstream were being relocated, a Sichuan government website said.

Pandas at a reserve less than 50 kilometers from the epicenter were not harmed, Xinhua said, citing an employee.

A Sina Weibo user posted a photo purportedly showing a badly damaged kindergarten in Lushan, its dark red stone slabs lying on the ground beside a row of trees. The authenticity of the photo could not be verified.

"Hang in there Ya'an!" the user wrote.

Weibo users in other cities reported feeling tremors.

Residents ran onto the street to get away from high rises, made phone calls and cried, a Sichuan government website reported. A few had even packed bags in case they needed to take shelter elsewhere.

The 2008 Sichuan quake, which struck west-northwest of Chengdu, generated an outpouring of support, with volunteers rushing to the scene to offer aid and then-premier Wen Jiabao also visiting.

But there was public anger after the discovery that many schools fell while other buildings did not, creating suspicion of corruption and corner cutting in construction.

The deaths of the children became a sensitive and taboo subject in the heavily controlled domestic media and social media websites.

Earthquakes frequently strike the country's southwest. In April 2010, a 6.9 magnitude quake killed about 2,700 people and injured 12,000 in a remote area of Qinghai province bordering the northwest of Sichuan.

source: interaksyon.com

Strong 6.2 quake rocks Russia near North Korea border

WASHINGTON - A powerful 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck early Saturday in eastern Russia near the border with China and North Korea, the US Geological Survey said.

The epicenter of the quake, which struck at 1300 GMT Friday, was southwest of Vladivostok, around nine kilometers (five miles) from the Russian border town of Zarubino, at a depth of 561 kilometers (350 miles), the USGS said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the quake, which struck seconds after 12 a.m. Saturday local time.

A 6.1-magnitude quake struck Russia's far east last month, and a 6.9 quake rocked the region in February. Neither caused significant damage.

An underground formation in the area known as the Kuril-Kamchatka arc is considered one of the most seismically active regions in the world.

Since 1900, seven powerful earthquakes of magnitude 8.3 or greater have occurred along the arc, according to the USGS.

source: interaksyon.com

Hope and despair as Japan marks tsunami anniversary

TOKYO -- In the dark months after a catastrophic tsunami smashed into Japan, killing almost 19,000 people and sparking a nuclear disaster, hopes for a rapid recovery and a national rebirth were frustrated by political paralysis.

Now, two years on and with an energized new administration in Tokyo, some are daring to believe that better times lie ahead for the stricken northeast, and the country as a whole.

Monday marks the second anniversary of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that sent a huge wall of water into the coast of the Tohoku region, splintering whole communities and ruining swathes of prime farmland.

Waves battered the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, 220 kilometers (136 miles) northeast of Tokyo, where reactors went into meltdown, sending out radioactive material that forced tens of thousands of people to flee.

More than a million homes were destroyed or damaged by the natural disaster.

Of the roughly 470,000 people who fled during the initial catastrophe and in the weeks after the nuclear crisis began, more than 315,000 people still live in temporary housing -- many of them dreary public units.

But hopes that massive infrastructure spending would put the region back on its feet, and reinvigorate a national economy that has suffered more than a decade of growth-sapping deflation, did not materialize.

Debris has largely been cleared from the streets of coastal settlements. But it remains piled up in parks and empty lots, grim monuments to the worst crisis to hit Japan since World War II.

Nearly 10,000 aftershocks have been recorded, including 736 jolts that measured above magnitude 5.0, some shaking the ground at Fukushima where there are still no permanent fixes for the damaged reactors.

Recovery work in places has stalled, victim sometimes of turf battles between local and national governments, or of indecision in communities unsure whether to rebuild on the same spot or move to higher ground.

Then in December Shinzo Abe swept into the prime minister's office, promising a succession of massive spending programs to speed up reconstruction and boost the national economy.

Abe's unapologetic and aggressive stimulus steps are divisive, with detractors criticizing his seeming love affair with debt-financed spending.

But they mark a stark reversal from the purposelessness many felt was the mark of his predecessors, who battled with hemorrhaging public support and ill-disciplined and fractious Tokyo politics.

"We will build a Tohoku in which young people are able to have hearts full of hope," said Abe in a recent policy speech.

Norio Kanno, mayor of Iitate village, 40 kilometers from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, said he and other local leaders have great hopes of the new government.

"It's been said 'There won't be any recovery of Japan without the recovery of Fukushima,'" said Kanno, whose village became a radiation hotspot from which its 6,000 residents evacuated.

"We have great expectations of the new government, which appears to be tackling this issue seriously," he said.

To be sure, government reconstruction money has already brought an economic and construction boon of sorts to some parts of Tohoku, where consumers whose entire lives had been washed away had to buy everything from fridges to cars.

But many tsunami-hit communities have become fragmented ghosts of their former selves, split by the need for safety and the desire to return to ancestral lands.

Many young people are leaving the region, particularly nuclear-tainted Fukushima where the economy is faltering, to start new lives. Some leave their parents behind, hoping they can one day go back to what they knew.

Meanwhile, Japan is still debating how it should power its massive economy, with the public split on whether atomic power should ever be trusted again.

Only two of its 50 commercial nuclear reactors have been restarted, with strict safety standards and a political nervousness keeping the others offline.

But with no commercially viable alternatives available and a staunchly pro-nuclear prime minister at the helm, commentators say it is likely just a matter of time before some units are fired up again.

At Fukushima, where engineers say the crippled reactors are no longer leaking radiation, experts believe it will be as long as 40 years before the site is completely decommissioned.

A poll by national broadcaster NHK found that 60 percent of viewers outside the disaster zone said their memories of Japan's worst post-WWII catastrophe were beginning to fade.

But for Mayor Kanno the wounds of two years ago are still fresh.

"Everybody feels, 'We don't need money if we can just get things back as they used to be"," he said. "But that can never happen."

source: interaksyon.com

Powerful 6.9 earthquake shakes northern Japan

TOKYO - A powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck northern Japan on Saturday, causing strong tremors across Hokkaido island but generating no tsunami or immediate reports of damage, authorities said.

The quake, which was preceded by an early warning broadcast on television and radio, hit near the town of Obihiro at a depth of 103 kilometres (64 miles) at 23:17 pm (1417 GMT), according to US Geological Survey data.

Japan's meteorological agency said there was no threat of a tsunami from the quake, and public broadcaster NHK cited police in Hokkaido as saying there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Blackouts were reported in some areas and a number of highways were closed, Kyodo News reported, citing officials.

Strong tremors were felt throughout Hokkaido -- the nation's second-largest island and a popular destination for skiing -- as well as the main island of Honshu which lies to its south, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

Several of Japan's nuclear facilities are located in Aomori prefecture in Honshu's north, but the companies which run the facilities said there were no abnormalities reported after the quake.

There was also no abnormality reported in Tomari, another nuclear plant in Hokkaido.

Tremors from the powerful quake lasted for about a minute, according to NHK which warned of possible aftershocks.

Shortly before it hit, an alert was broadcast on television and radio, forecasting the impending quake, through an early warning system established by the weather agency.

Programmes were interrupted on NHK to broadcast information about the earthquake.

"Make yourself safe, turn off the gas, beware of falling objects, and if you are outside do not approach the coast," the broadcaster said.

A press conference by the national seismological agency was scheduled for later in the night.

In March 2011 a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan's northeast left some 19,000 people dead or missing and crippled the Fukushima nuclear power plant in the world's worst atomic disaster in 25 years.

A powerful 7.3-magnitude undersea quake in the same area in December triggered a one-metre-high tsunami but no reports of fatalities.

source: interaksyon.com