Storm surge ruins mosque, 20 houses in Zamboanga City

ZAMBOANGA CITY , Philippines  – At least 20 houses and a mosque were washed out when a storm surge swept through a coastal village west of this city shortly before midnight last Wednesday, authorities said.

No one was reported hurt or missing, but the houses on the coast of Sitio Balikakas, Barangay Pata-lon vanished when the storm surge struck.

Allan Labayog, research specialist of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, said what happened was not a tsunami, although a 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck the Celebes Sea. The tremor was hardly felt in the city and the storm surge occurred hours earlier.

“We just heard a strong gush of wind rumbling and knocked down the mosque, and later the rush of waves washed out our houses,” Soraina Usmani, 39, one of the displaced residents.

Usmani said their elders had warned them to leave the place before the storm surge occurred.

Roseller Garina, village chief, said at least 59 families were dislocated and immediately attended to by the city’s social welfare office.