MANILA, Philippines — On Saturday morning, a pair of earthquakes with magnitudes 5.4 and 5.9 struck the island of Batanes.
These quakes were felt at varying intensities in Itabayat, Batanes with Intensity VI as the maximum recorded. It is considered very strong based on the intensity scale of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology.
The twin quakes also left nine people dead and 63 others injured while 911 families or 2,963 individuals were affected.
The tremors also damaged 15 houses, two schools and two health facilities.
These kinds of powerful earthquakes are not new to the northernmost province of the Philippines.
Batanes had witnessed up to 18 moderate to strong quakes in the past.
The Sta. Maria de Mayan Church was among the damaged structures in the recent twin quakes.
Nineteen years ago, the island’s Basco Cathedral was also significantly damaged by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake.
Batanes is hit by tremors due to movement along offshore active faults and subduction activities along the Manila Trench or the East Luzon Trough. — with information from Phivolcs