At least 19 people died and hospitals, homes and classrooms were extensively damaged.
The magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck at 7:37 a.m. local time (7:37 p.m. Sunday in New York), about 32 kilometers (20 miles) off the coast west of Maasim in Sarangani province, according to the U.N. aid coordination office, OCHA.
Mindanao, the second largest and most populous island in the Philippines, is home to approximately 26 million people. The earthquake triggered tsunami warnings in parts of the Philippines and neighboring countries, prompting coastal evacuations before the warnings were lifted later in the day.
Initial government reports cited by OCHA indicate that 19 people died, 12 are still missing and at least 134 were injured. Officials cautioned that the numbers remain provisional as assessments continue.
Exposure to seismic tremors.
More than 100 replicas
Many of the deaths occurred in Sarangani province, including people who died in a landslide, although those figures have not yet been verified.
More than 138 aftershocks were recorded after the earthquake, with a magnitude of 1.3 to 6.7 on the Richter scale.. Operations at General Santos International Airport were temporarily suspended before resuming on a limited basis.
Initial reports indicate widespread damage to schools, hospitals, government buildings and other structures. Power and telecommunications outages were reported in several affected areas, while damaged roads and bridges have made access to some communities difficult.
Millions of students affected
The earthquake occurred on the first day of the new school year for millions of students across Mindanao.
More than 3.2 million students have been affected and classes have been suspended in more than 6,200 public and private schools pending safety inspections. and structural evaluations.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said it was particularly concerned about the impact on children. Initial reports indicate injuries among some students and damage to school buildings and public facilities.
“The safety of students and teachers must remain the top priority,“UNICEF said, adding that it had emergency supplies and cash assistance ready for rapid deployment.
Humanitarian partners warn that the psychological impact of the main earthquake and its subsequent aftershocks could be significant for children.
emergency response
The Philippine Government placed national disaster management teams and agencies on “red alert” and activated the humanitarian inter-agency coordination mechanism.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered government agencies to respond immediately, while search, rescue and recovery operations continued throughout the day.
Government disaster management, health, education and public works teams have been deployed to the affected areas. Social workers, mobile command centers and field kitchens have also been mobilized to support displaced families.
The UN and its partners mobilize
The UN in the Philippines issued a statement of solidarity, praising the swift actions of national and local authorities and reaffirming its readiness to support the government-led response.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) is deploying emergency personnel and equipment to help establish a temporary storage facility for relief supplies, while the Philippine Red Cross and other partners have also begun mobilizing response teams.
Humanitarian organizations are conducting rapid assessments to identify urgent needs, while a special Humanitarian Country Team meeting is planned for Tuesday as authorities work to determine the full scale of one of the strongest earthquakes to hit Mindanao in recent years.