2 Strong Quakes Hit Philippines Hours Apart

Two powerful offshore earthquakes struck the same region in the southern Philippines around seven hours apart on Friday with the first 7.4 magnitude temblor killing at least seven people, setting off landslides, and prompting evacuations of coastal areas nearby because of a brief tsunami scare. The second one had a preliminary 6.8 magnitude and also sparked a local tsunami warning by authorities. It was caused by movement in the same fault line, the Philippine Trench, at a depth of 23 miles off Manay town in Davao Oriental province, said Philippine Institute of Seismology and Volcanology chief Teresito Bacolcol.

• "The second one is a separate earthquake, which we call a doublet quake," Bacolcol tells the AP. "Both happened in the same area but have different strengths and epicenters." Bacolcol and other authorities expressed fears that the second earthquake, which hit at night, could further weaken or collapse structures already undermined by the first one.
• After the first quake, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., facing his latest natural disaster after a previous earthquake last week and back-to-back storms, said the potential damage was being assessed and rescue teams and relief operations were being prepared and would be deployed when it was safe to do so.

• After the first quake, children evacuated schools in Davao city, which has about 5.4 million people and is the biggest city near the epicenter, about 155 miles west of Davao Oriental province.
• "I was driving my car when it suddenly swayed and I saw powerlines swaying wildly. People darted out of houses and buildings as the ground shook and electricity came off," Jun Saavedra, a disaster-mitigation official of Gov. Generoso town in Davao Oriental, tells the AP. "We've had earthquakes in the past, but this was the strongest."
• "We understand that Filipinos are now experiencing disaster fatigue from typhoons, volcanic minor eruptions and earthquakes. We asked them not to feel fearful," Bacolcol said Friday, per the BBC. "We have to prepare ourselves. We have to accept our reality that the Philippines is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire—that every now and then we will be jolted by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. Instead of panicking, we have to prepare."