Magnitude 6.1 Earthquake Yesterday!

Source: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us70003a63/region-info

A Strong One

It was around five in the afternoon when the washing machine on our rooftop balcony stopped spin drying my laundry. Seeing that I had forgotten to bring up some hangers with me, I went downstairs to get some from my room.

As I entered my room, I made a cursory check on my Facebook feed, and noticed some notifications for messages. So, I sat on my bed and looked at them. Then after a few minutes of replying and exchanging jokes with friends, everything started shaking.

Earthquake, I muttered to myself. Then, I remembered that Mom and my nephew were in the dining room, so I shouted at them as they seemed to be engrossed in the movie they were watching in Mom's laptop. Since, I had nowhere in my room to dive under for safety, I just sat on my bed and counted the seconds since the shaking began.

When the shaking stopped, I looked at the time on my computer and saw that it was 5:12. Then I checked my Facebook newsfeed and saw a flurry of statuses and news updates about the temblor. I remembered that I still had laundry to hang so I grabbed some hangers and dashed upstairs.

After finishing my chore, I made a cup of coffee and went back here to my room to look at the latest news about the earthquake. Since it was a strong one, I felt that it surely caused some or a lot of damage in the area where it originated.

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Initial reports from the various news agencies reported a magnitude of 5.7. Being a geek who knows where to look for more detailed information about such events, I opened another tab and browsed my favorite site for earthquake information, the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program.

It had just been less than 15 minutes after the quake and the USGS site didn't have anything on it yet, so I switced back to the FB tab and checked out every news article I saw in my feed. Then I saw a recently posted news from a news page and learned that the center of the quake was in Castillejos, Zambales, about 87 miles (140 km) from Manila.

With my curiousity satisfied, I switched back to the USGS tab and checked again if they had anything on the quake. And, there it was, updated and listed as a magnitude 6.1, considerably stronger than the initially reported M 5.7.

"That must have surely done a lot of damage", I thought to myself, and turned my attention to the steady stream of visuals on my newsfeed.

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The Aftermath

Although the epicenter was in the province of Zambales, it was the neighboring province of Pampanga that suffered the most damage. The ground in Zambales is hard and mountainous, while Pampanga is mostly soft flatlands, with the soil in the most affected towns of Porac, Floridablanca, Lubao, and Angeles soft due to lahar deposits.

In Porac, a supermarket was flattened, and the belfry of the Santa Catalina de Alejandria Parish Church was damaged. Roads and bridges were also cracked in other parts of the province, while in the city of Angeles, the ceiling of Clark International Airport fell, causing the suspension of flights until Thursday.

Here in Manila we were not spared. Videos of damage to high-rise structures, with water spewing from their tops, were shared in social media. A school building was shown to be leaning on the building next to it. Railway operations were also suspended temporarily for inspection.

Casualty count is currently at 15, and there are reports of many still buried under rubble.

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Some Videos of the Affected Areas

Here are some videos from Youtube. I wanted to post some pictures but there were too many, and besides, you can just check them out in Facebook, and the article links I have provided here.