A deadly earthquake leaves the Philippins in difficulty in ghost cities

Two days after an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 hit her hometown in the center of the Philippines, Dugue Estalicas says that she always feels dizzy every time she gets up.

This feeling of rotation, associated with a chain of replicas, left the 35 -year -old tourist officer and many other survivors who are too frightened to return home, forcing them to live temporarily in tents.

The earthquake rocked the north coast of Cebu, one of the most populous islands in the country, on the night of September 30, escaping from their sleep.

He killed at least 68 people and Wounded more than 500 others, while houses, buildings and churches collapsed and the roads have cracked.

“I still couldn’t treat what happened to us,” Estalicas told BBC. “I am overwhelmed by the things we have experienced in the past two days.”

The 35 -year -old man lives in the city of Medellin, near the epicenter of the earthquake. Responsible for the response to disasters say that the earthquake moved nearly 80,000 people across Cebu and the neighboring provinces. Cebu is A large shopping center and transport in the center of the Philippines.

She said that she had left the bed, shouting when the earthquake struck and ran outside with her family.

They slept under the open sky, but when a slight drizzle fell, Mrs. Estalicas and her family wrapped in plastic bags because they had no waterproof loops.

Photos on social networks have shown them weakened on plastic chairs, wrapped in plastic bags scraped by their breath.

About 10 km (6.2 miles), in the municipality of San Remigio, Lourenze Pareja also spent the night outside on the night of the earthquake.

“There, under the night sky, we sat freely – with great faith – with our little lights, holding the resources we had,” wrote Mr. Pareja on Facebook. “Pray for us, everyone.”

When the ground started to tremble, Mr. Pareja said he had caught his phone and ran into the street to broadcast the current chaos live – neighbors in pajamas leaving their house, with their children and their animals in a trailer.

“Lord,” said the 25-year-old community journalist in Livestream, calling God, apparently unable to say Grande Chose from others.

He said he had checked the neighboring city of Bogo and had seen solar lamps projecting a dark glow on the streets scattered with rocks.

“What was once a dynamic city has turned into a ghost city,” he said.

The Philippines are vulnerable to natural disasters. It is located on the geologically unstable “fire ring” – so called due to the high number of earthquakes and volcanoes that occur here.

Cebu’s earthquake on Tuesday is among the strongest and deadliest in recent years. In 2013, a 7.2 magnification earthquake on the neighboring island of Bohol killed more than 200 people and destroyed searrian churches.

On Thursday, rescuers searched the rubble while the authorities were working to deliver food, restore power and communication lines and clear debris roads.

The Philippine army has deployed troops to help maintain order during rescue efforts.

However, daily necessities remain an urgent concern for many.

Photographer Doods Demape decided Thursday to make a four -hour Medellin trip to the provincial capital to buy supplies because no supermarkets were opened.

Mr. Demape says he had trouble finding a service station that was not overwhelmed for long queues.

“Most roads are now passable, so supplies now come from the city. But immediate supplies like water and food, especially for children, are not yet available,” he told the BBC.

In Bogo City, the epicenter of the earthquake, local media reports show bags of bodies bordered in the street in front of the makeshift hospitals where the wounded are treated.

This week’s earthquake comes in the middle of a fierce typhoon season. Two consecutive storms flooded large expanses of the country a week earlier.

The generalized floods of these storms and the previous monsoon rains angered the public and triggered street demonstrations.

Cebu is particularly subject to typhoons. It is on the general path of storms that are formed on the Pacific.

The northern region of the island, the epicenter of Tuesday earthquake, was struck by the Super Typhon Haiyan in 2013. This storm killed more than 6,000 people throughout the central region.

Among the many buildings damaged by Tuesday’s earthquake, there was a relocation site for Haiyan survivors.

Despite their current challenges, the inhabitants of Cebu as Ms. Estalicas and Mr. Pareja hope that they could survive the earthquake, as they did after Haiyan and the calamities before her.

They say that the survivors help each other, which the Philippins call Bayanihan or the community.

“My only prayer is that the aid will not be delayed – and that neighboring municipalities are also envisaged and covered in these help efforts,” said Pareja.