Earhquake hits at 9.59 pm Tuesday

EDITED:

A magnitude 7 (quite big!) earthquake (at only 10km depth - some reports now say 5m depth) hit off the coast of Leyte and was felt in Dumaguete.

Earlier said near Palompon, Leyte but now stated as 18km north-east of Bogo (North Cebu).

There was a risk of a tsunami in regions near the epicentre, but that has not occurred.

Videos on YouTube show terrible panic and at the moment (3.30 am Wednesday) there are at least 17 fatalities and, of course, we would expect that to increase.

What a life some have here with all the natural disasters - some hitting the same places time after time.

 

According to FB there was an 8.8 mag. quake in Russia and the Philippines is in line for a tsunami around 1:30 this afternoon. This has not been mentioned on ANC (news) yet....so??
There were multiple quakes in the Visayas, a small one in Zamoanguita, there was some damage to the highway up north in Amlan.
Reports are starting to trickle in. WOW!!

 

In the Dumaguete area we are pretty much protected against (severe) effects of a tsunami by surrounding island masses, the risk of a really bad storm is limited (because most of those will turn further north before getting close) and the nearby volcano has been dormant for centuries, but the one big risk anywhere in the Philippines is a catastrophic earthquake (6.5+ magnitude). Fingers crossed we won't get one of those nearby (epicenter within 20 km or so) any time soon.
Obviously the damage and loss of life in northern Cebu from last night's quake are horrendous (and reports will quite likely get worse in the next few days).

 

You can bet your boots the majority of those killed was by falling masonry from poorly constructed walls and buildings, likely where CHB's have been used and from what I have seen on new build houses under construction the Pillar and Beam structures are done piece meal in sections, having paid attention to many such new builds, never yet did I see a Pillar done in one continuous pour and never yet did I ever see a concrete vibrator on any jobs and yet the use of this will add a high percentage of strength to any concrete, there they think hitting the forms with a toffee hammer is all that is required.

Natural disasters generally do not kill people it is the falling masonry that does this from poorly constructed buildings which are just not designed to withstand these disasters, added to that Pinoy construction workers have no real understanding of concrete or it properties, the ones I had working with me were nice honest guys but had to be about as stupid as they come, my Neighbour had a dozen of them building his CHB house and they were all just as bad, in fact a newly built 4mtr CHB wall was to collapse onto his house during the December Typhoon in 2020, today that same house lies empty and has done for the last 3 years.