Mindanews/13 October– Triggered by traumatic events nearly fifty years ago, residents of coastal barangays of Pagadian, Zamboanga del Sur fled to higher grounds Friday evening following the two October 10 earthquakes that struck in waters off Manay town, Davao Oriental.
Pagadian City mayor Samuel Co told local media that Phivolcs confirmed that there was no earthquake monitored in the city or the province of Zamboanga del Sur on that day but said he allowed the residents to spend the night in the city’s Plaza Luz covered court to allay their fears.
Co said the residents were alerted because of the Phivolcs’ tsunami warning after the second quake in Manay that struck at 7:12 p.m. The tsunami warning did not include the coastal area of the Zamboanga Region, which is more than 300 kilometers away from the quakes’ epicenter in Manay, Davao Oriental and is in the opposite side of the Mindanao.
A few of the residents interviewed by the local media OneTV Mindanao inside an evacuation center said they felt the earth move that night and observed that the seawater was unusually high.
Some 580 persons or 132 families from four barangays — White Beach, Santiago, San Pedro and Kawit — spent the night in the gym where they were provided with meals and tents before returning to their homes on Saturday.
One of the city government’s social workers who attended to the residents explained in an interview that it was the trauma of 1976 that caused residents to flee from the coast.
“Tungod sa ilang experience kaniadto mao nang na trauma, so everytime naay ani nga mahitabo, modagaan na dayon sila. Dili nato sila mapungnan nga moanhi, kay bisan kita dili nato ma predict unsay mahitabo (Perhaps it was their experience before that brought them trauma. So every time something like this happens, they will flee right away. We can’t stop them from doing that, because we can’t predict what might happen),” she said.
Pagadian was one of the places that was hit hard by the 1976 Moro Gulf quake. The magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck just minutes past midnight of August 17, 1976. It triggered a tsunami that was three meters high that hit 700 kilometers of coastline bordering the Moro Gulf in the provinces of Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Basilan and Sulu, and the cities of Cotabato, Zamboanga and Pagadian.
Around 8,000 were killed and declared missing, with Maguindanao Province posting the highest number of casualties. Elderly Pagadian residents recalled seeing thousands of bodies washed away or hanging on trees and structures the day after the tsunami.
Mayor Co said that he is mulling deploying night watchmen who will monitor the coasts to help quell residents’ fears of a tsunami. (Mindanews)
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