One person was confirmed to have died when he was struck by falling hollow blocks during the 7.4-magnitude quake that jolted Davao Oriental and the surrounding areas of Mindanao on Friday.
Ednar Dayanghirang, regional director of the Office of Civil Defense (OCD), said that the first casualty was reported in the mountain village of Calapagan in Lupon town of Davao Oriental, where a residential building also collapsed.
‘I just talked to the mayor of the town, who confirmed the first casualty during the earthquake,’ Dayanghirang said, although he could not provide other details.
He also noted that the seawater along Barangay Dahican in Mati City was observed to have receded following the quake whose epicenter was traced 62 km southeast of Manay, Davao Oriental.
Local government units (LGUs) along the coastlines of Davao Oriental have ordered a preemptive evacuation following the tsunami warning earlier issued by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs).
Phivolcs predicted that waves one meter higher than the normal tides would be generated by the quake and would arrive on shore between 9:43:54 a.m. to 11:43:54 a.m.
In Davao City, where the quake was felt at Intensity V, classes were called off. Some banks also sent home their workers as power has been cut off in some parts of the city./coa