No official damage, casualty yet from 6.3 quake in Davao del Sur

MANILA, Philippines — (Updated 4:55 p.m.) No official damage has been reported so far after a strong magnitude 6.3 earthquake struck the province of Davao del Sur on Sunday, authorities said.

State seismologists said the tremor's epicenter was at the municipality of Magsaysay at 12:22 p.m. of February 7, whose intensity was felt by the nearby areas.

Before the said quake, a 4.8 magnitude had also hit the said area at 7:28 a.m., per Phivolcs' records.

Five aftershocks have since followed the 6.3, all in the same area, with the latest being a magnitude 2.2 at 3:57 p.m. The agency had also downgraded the earthquake to magnitude 6.1.

Mark Timbal, spokesperson of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council told Philstar.com that assessment of their teams on the ground is still ongoing with official damage yet to be reported.

The Magsaysay fire station in a Facebook post said too that upon inspection, there were no casualties or damage so far. The Philippine Red Cross, meanwhile, has posted photos of a mall in Davao del Sur that sustained cracks following the quake.

Intensities were recorded in the following areas:

Intensity V (Strong) - Kidapawan City, Koronadal City and South Cotabato
Intensity IV (Moderately Strong) - Alabal and Kiamba in Sarangani, General Santos City and South Cotabato
Intensity II (Slightly felt) - Cagayan de Oro and Gingoog in Misamis Oriental
Intensity I (Scarcely perceptible) - Cagayan de Oro in Misamis Oriental

In North Cotabato, Gov. Nancy Catamco said she has mobilized emergency responders under her office in anticipation of aftershocks.

The tremors sent hundreds of those in malls in Kidapawan City, the province's capital, as well as in the cities of General Santos and Koronadal running for their lives.

Bai Naila, barangay chairperson of Datalblao in Columbio, Sultan Kudarat, said the second quake had left cracks in the concrete walks of their barangay hall.

Over DZBB, a local disaster response official in Kidapawan said patients and medical personnel in different hospitals in the city were evacuated after the earthquake.

Some 100 families are also set to be preemptively evacuated from the foot of the Mount Apo as their community is surrounded by areas which are high risk to landslide.

"Ito 'yung mga areas na moderate naman 'yung location ng komunidad nila kaya lang [kahit] moderate sa landslide, napapaligiran ng high risk kaya kailangan i-evacuate para maiwasan natin gumuho 'yung lupa na galing doon sa higher elevations," said Psalmer Bernalte of the Kidapawan CDRRMO. — Christian Deiparine with reports from John Unson