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[av_heading heading=’Is Iloilo City prepared for destructive earthquakes? ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Tuesday, April 11, 2017
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ILOILO City – If a magnitude 8.2 earthquake hits this city, 80 percent of structures built before the enforcement of the National Building Code will collapse, according to the City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CDRRMO).
Is the city ready to respond to this emergency?
“I can say that we are almost prepared. We have the equipment for search and rescue in collapsed structures,” said CDRRMO head Darwin Papa.
His office regularly conducts earthquake drills in hospitals, schools and malls, among others.
But Papa admitted that the main concern were structures that did not meet the standards set by the National Building Code.
“Their stability is not that ensured in terms of high-scale earthquakes,” he said.
In 1948 the earthquake called Lady Caycay struck Panay Island. The magnitude 8.2 tremor damaged the belfry of the Jaro Cathedral among other structures built during Hispanic times.
Papa said CDRRMO personnel were trained to respond to earthquake emergencies.
“The Bureau of Fire and Protection has special response unit, too,” he added.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) defined earthquake as a weak to violent shaking of the ground produced by the sudden movement of rock materials below the earth’s surface.
Papa cited an earthquake study conducted by Geosciences Australia and Phivolcs that a magnitude 8.2 earthquake could cause widespread destruction in the city (80 percent of pre-National Building Code buildings would collapse; 60 to 70 percent of the population could be injured; and there could be casualties).
There are two types – tectonic produced by the sudden movement along faults and trenches; and volcanic produced by the movement of magma beneath volcanoes.
“During the last presentation of Phivolcs chief Undersecretary Renato Solidum here in Iloilo, he said the possible 8.2 magnitude had been downgraded because of the movement of the Negros Trench in the past few years. Every year, there’s an earthquake and the pressure built at the Negros Trench has been expended. It will take another 50 to 60 years for an 8.2 magnitude quake to strike,” said Papa.
He also said the feared “Big One” in Metro Manila could affect Western Visayas even if the region was “quite far.”
Among quake-related hazards are faulting or ground rupture, ground shaking, liquefaction, tsunami, fire and landslide. (Iloilo City PIO/PN)
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