Teams Search for Survivors after Philippine Quake

Rescue efforts are continuing Tuesday after the powerful earthquake which struck the central Philippines yesterday leaving dozens of people dead or missing. The magnitude 6.7 powerful quake struck near Tayasan town in the central Philippine island of Negros on Monday.
Official reports put the death toll at 15 confirmed dead, 44 reported missing and 52 injured, while several remote towns have been cut off because of damage to roads and bridges. The death toll includes two children, according to the government''s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC). One local report on Monday put the number of dead at 43, including many people killed in a landslide in the badly-hit coastal area of Guihulngan. But this report has not yet been confirmed by the central authorities. Telecommunications have been cut in many areas. A series of aftershocks followed the initial quake, one of them registered a magnitude of 6.2 at the epicenter. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology issued a tsunami alert for the area, but had lifted it later on. Today, public schools and two universities in Negros Oriental province were closed. Regional officials and an administrator from Manila had also arrived in the area and were assessing damage and needs. Damaged roads and bridges added to challenges faced by rescue workers and the transport of aid and supplies. In the town of Guihulngan, about 90 km north of Dumaguete, reports said some houses had been completely buried by landslides, and the market and court house were also damaged. Nine bridges were damaged in Negros Oriental, with four no longer passable. The quake also caused a landslide in the mountain village of Solongon in La Libertad town, in the same province.
Source: BNA