Desperation

Several earthquakes and numerous strong aftershocks have rocked almost the same area of Tulunan, North Cotabato. The tremors registered as high as 6.6 with aftershocks in the 4 and 5 magnitude. The people of Tulunan are becoming desperate, asking for true divine intervention to finally stop the shaking of the earth. It seems the fault line where these earthquakes are originating from has not settled down.

According to Philvolcs director Renato Solidum, there are many fault lines in the area so it could be the same one causing the quakes. A fault line is a "geological fracture where the movement of masses of rock have displaced parts of the earth's crust." To simplify, it is where large land masses have "touched" and are moving. When the movement is significant, that's an earthquake you can feel. This is why it is impossible to predict when and where an earthquake will occur, much less stop one. Once the seismographs at Phivolcs catch the ground moving, it's too late to issue any kind of warning. Any news predicting an earthquake is about to happen is fake.

Several were killed in the series of earthquakes. Many buildings have sustained significant damage, some already weakened by an earthquake days before causing them to finally collapse. There is no total estimate yet of the damage that the cities have sustained especially those near the epicenters, but it will definitely be in the hundreds of millions. The country needs to unite and help those affected by the earthquake who are asking for food, water, and shelter. Local officials are already poised to declare a state of calamity to expedite the availability of funds and the delivery of aid.

I cannot imagine what those affected are going through, especially those who have lost their homes. There is nothing more unsettling than the ground shaking beneath you. The government is supposedly on top of the situation with Defense chief Lorenzana overseeing relief efforts. We can only hope the fault lines have quieted down to give everyone a chance to get their lives back, not to mention a chance to breath in and relax.

The Philippines belongs to the "Pacific Ring of Fire" composed of countries that line the Pacific Ocean. Countries that have active fault lines and volcanoes. Which is why we are no stranger to eruptions and tremors. Add those to the typhoons we usually have and we are indeed one of the more disaster-prone countries in the world. In the 1990s we experienced both a strong earthquake and an eruption from a volcano long thought to be extinct. The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo effectively altered the classification of volcanoes, replacing those “extinct” with “dormant.” Nothing we can really do about all these but prepare, which in reality is much easier said than done. Which is why disaster preparedness is something government must also prioritize.