A destroyed road in Sagbayan, Bohol province, in central Philippines after the earthquake hit the island on Tuesday.
LOBOC: The Philippines started to clear roads blocked by debris yesterday as it reckoned up the cost of this week’s powerful earthquake, with the death toll rising to 161.
Thousands of residents of Bohol island, which took the brunt of Tuesday’s 7.2 magnitude quake, remained living outdoors, for fear of aftershocks bringing down damaged homes. Authorities have recorded more than 1,200 aftershocks including one of magnitude 5.5.
Nearly 17,000 people have yet to return home in the town of Loboc, where the island’s second oldest church, the Church of St Peter, was pulverised in the quake.
“All left their homes because of the strong aftershocks,” said Mayor Helen Alaba, adding she had sent out teams of engineers to check if homes were safe.
The national disaster agency said at least 146 of the dead were on Bohol, 630km south of capital Manila. There were 11 deaths on the nearby Cebu islands and another on Siguijor Island.
The number of injured reached 374, with at least 22 people missing. The government has declared a state of calamity in Cebu and Bohol, where more than 3.4 million people were hit by the quake. Schools remain closed.
Damage to infrastructure, mostly roads and bridges, was initially estimated at P179.15m ($4.2m). The quake caused big landslides and wrecked more than 130 schools and 2,000 houses, completely destroying some, besides damaging 34 bridges and nine main roads.
Engineers say at least three bridges in Bohol are structurally unsound and need to be replaced.
“To make these roads passable at the soonest, they will need about P700m,” said Bohol Governor Edgardo Chatto. “We’re not talking of replacements yet.”
The transport department estimates restoring Bohol’s damaged port of Tagbilaran City would cost about P500m.
After providing food and shelter to victims, restoration of Bohol’s centuries-old churches, usually thronged by tourists, would top the government’s agenda, Chatto said.
Loboc, whose residents depend on tourism for livelihoods, will need weeks to recover before it can resume such tourist draws as river cruises and sightings of the world’s smallest primate, the tarsier, a tourism official said.
Meanwhile surgeons were planning to save lives on open-air operating tables in a hospital carpark as rescuers struggled to help isolated survivors.
Patients waited to be operated on in the parking lot of a provincial hospital, their beds sheltered under makeshift tents because the main building was filled with injured survivors.
Agencies
