Doctors treated patients in tents set up under a scorching Philippine sun on Tuesday, including helping a young mother give birth, as the death toll from a major earthquake that collapsed buildings and sparked tsunami warnings topped 40.
Thousands remained displaced and more than 450 injured following the magnitude-7.8 quake that struck off the southern island of Mindanao on Monday, according to national and local disaster agencies, though only four people were now believed missing.
In the hardest-hit Sarangani province, some areas remain accessible only by helicopter, and fears of aftershocks were slowing rescue efforts, local officials told reporters at a Tuesday briefing.
“There are still aftershocks, so the rescuers are very cautious in their approach. That’s a challenge,” said regional civil defence chief Rodrigo Sosmena.
A series of powerful aftershocks rocked the area from about two hours after the first quake, while hundreds of tiny quakes followed.
Infrastructure damage, meanwhile, means some communities will be cut off for at least a week because of the damage to roads and the collapse of a bridge.
In Glan municipality, where at least 13 people were buried in their homes by a landslide, staff at another hospital said, “more than 60 patients were on beds outside the facility due to fears for the building’s structural integrity.”
“The hospital sustained a lot of damage,” she also said.
“The municipal engineer decided we could not use the building,” she added.
As of Tuesday morning, the death toll from provincial sources contacted by AFP stood at 41.
Outside a collapsed grocery store in General Santos, rescuers resumed efforts after an overnight break to recover two store employees who were inside when the building crumpled.
Rescue dogs and their handlers scoured the pile of broken concrete and jagged metal bars.
A local rescuer told reporters the effort was now one of recovery rather than rescue, though a more senior official later insisted that the decision had yet to be formally made.
At a nearby beach resort, a high-speed Coast Guard vessel plied the waters for two people who went missing while swimming in waters that churned violently as the quake struck.
Videos posted to social media on Monday showed the catastrophic collapse of a shopping centre with a Jollibee fast food restaurant in General Santos, while another unoccupied school building crumpled.
In another video, young schoolchildren could be seen screaming in the arms of their teachers as the quake violently swayed them back and forth on the ground.
In the background, a flimsy metal structure toppled as the video uploaded to the school’s official Facebook page ended.
An accompanying caption stated, “no one was under the structure when it fell.”
The earthquake saw thousands ordered to evacuate in coastal areas of the southern Philippines and neighbouring Indonesia as tsunami warnings were issued by multiple countries and a regional tsunami warning centre.
But by midday, the threat had passed and authorities cancelled the alerts.
Waves that did reach the Pacific coast of Japan, where authorities had issued a tsunami advisory, were reported to be no higher than 20 centimetres.
In October, a pair of earthquakes of 7.4 and 6.7 magnitudes rocked Eastern Mindanao, killing at least eight people.
