Tremor-related damages, deaths in North Cotabato immense
Local News • 10:15 AM Wed Nov 20, 2019
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By:
John M. Unson
An encampment in Kidapawan City of earthquake victims. (Contributed)
NORTH COTABATO --- More than 20 villagers, not just seven as earlier reported, perished in the devastating episodes of earthquakes that jolted this province in the past four weeks.
Acting North Cotabato Vice Gov. Shirlyn Macasarte-Villanueva was quoted in radio reports Wednesday as saying that 21 villagers died from tremor-related injuries when a magnitude 6.3 foreshock hit the province on October 16, followed by almost 3,000 aftershocks since.
Citing their latest assessment compiled from reports supplied by local government units in affected towns, Macasarte-Villanueva said 361 residents have also been hurt as earthquakes shook their villages.
Worst hit by earthquakes from between October 16 to November 18 were North Cotabato’s adjoining Makilala and Tulunan towns and the provincial capital, Kidapawan City.
A total of 20,704 families, or 103,520 individuals, among them children and elderly people, were dislocated by the markedly phenomenal calamity, something never ever experienced by southern communities before.
The earthquakes damaged 18,997 structures in North Cotabato, mostly houses in far-flung barangays and public school buildings, 1,707 of them beyond repair.
Macasarte-Villanueva said the provincial government is doing its best to provide its tremor-stricken constituents with continuing relief and rehabilitation interventions. []