7.6 Quake hits Phillippines killing 1 person in Cagayan de Oro City

Off-topic for the Mobile Tech Blog:

Update from the quake that happened last Friday, August 31, 2012.

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck out the Philippines' eastern coast late Friday, killing one person in a house collapse, knocking out power in several towns and spurring panic about a tsunami that ended up generating only tiny waves.

According to the city mayor, Vicente Emano from the interview, at least one-woman a 54-year-old Emelita Ubalde of Barangay Lapasan, was killed and her 5-year-old grandson Adrian Ubalde injured in the collapse of a house in southern Cagayan de Oro city, on the main southern island of Mindanao.

The earthquake was concentrated only ninety-one miles east of Guiuan, Samar. The quake was roughly one hundred thirty (130) miles northeast of Surigao, Mindanao. The quake could also be felt in the east, roughly one hundred forty (140) miles from Tacloban, Leyte. And USGS indicates to news that the quake was approximately five hundred miles southeast of Manila. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service reports that no tsunami warning, watch or advisory is in place currently.

The earthquake triggered car alarms, rocked items away from shelves and sent many coastal residents fleeing for high ground before the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center lifted all tsunami alerts it had issued for the Philippines and neighboring countries from Indonesia to Japan, and for Pacific islands as far away as the Northern Marianas.

"You talk to God with an earthquake that strong," an interview thru phone from Bemruel Noel, a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, from Tacloban city on the eastern coast of Leyte island, where the quake set off a small stampede of residents "It was very strong. My house was making sounds".

Tacloban resident Digna Marco said the quake toppled a figurine on top of her TV set and that her son had to hold their desktop computer to prevent it from falling to the floor. The lights over her dining room were swinging, she said.

The quake generated only very small tsunami waves of about 3 centimeters (just over an inch) along the eastern Philippine coast near Legazpi city and another nearby location, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said.

The center said that very small tsunami waves of just over an inch were recorded along the country's eastern coast near Legazpi city and another nearby location.

A fisherman Marlon Lagramado who told The Associated Press"My neighbors and I have evacuated. We are now on our way to the mountains," before the warnings were lifted, in a telephone interview from the coastal town of Guiwan in the Philippine province of Eastern Samar.

"Don't sleep, especially those in the eastern seaboard … because there might be aftershocks," Benito Ramos said, a retired general who heads the country's disaster-response agency, said in an advisory broadcast nationwide that residents should be on the alert for more quakes.

The quake, with preliminary magnitude 7.6, hit at a depth of 21.7 miles and was centered 66 miles east of Samar Island, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Source: Inquirer, Mindanao News, SunStar, Associated Press, USAToday