Zamboanga City (CNN Philippines) — Three persons were injured when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake rocked Zamboanga del Norte Thursday morning (April 14).
A part of the wall collapsed inside the victims’ house in Barangay Sinunuc, Zamboanga City.
Other barangay residents also suffered damages to their homes, but no casualties have been reported.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvolcs) said the quake is tectonic in origin and had a depth of 47 kilometers.
The earthquake originated at sea, 17 kilometers northwest of Baliguian.
Surrounding towns felt the earthquake at varying intensities:
Intensity VI – Zamboanga City
Intensity V – Baliguian and Siocon, Zamboanga Del Norte
Intensity IV – Gutalac, Ipil, Labason and Sibuco, Zamboanga Del Norte; Titay, Zamboanga Sibugay; Isabela City, Basilan; Pagadian City
Intensity III – Salug and Liloy, Zamboanga Del Norte
Intensity II – Dipolog City; Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental; Dapitan City; Sibulan, Negros
Oriental; Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental
Intensity I – Lazi, Siquijor
Power out
The quake caused power outages in several areas in Zamboanga City.
According to Zamboanga Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco) Spokesperson Ferdinand Rodriquez, the blackouts were caused by loose connections and other problems in Zamcelco facilities.
There were at least two feeders that encountered problems. Power outages were also reported in some areas of Zamboanga’s east coast barangays.
Zamcelco trouble shooters were dispatched in the area to look into these technical problems.
Residents evacuated
Residents in a coastal barangay in Pagadian were evacuated after the city was rattled by a 10-second quake.
Haron Damada, head of the City Disaster Risk Reduction Managment Council, said residents were evacuated to the safest designated area at about 2:30 am, in anticipation of a tsunami that might strike after the quake.
But the residents were later advised to return to their homes after authorities guaranteed their safety, since the epicenter is far from their area.
However, Philvolcs said aftershocks are expected.
Journalists Liza Jocson and Jong Cadion contributed to this report.
