Panic in downtown Cebu after the quake?

I was in a meeting in My TV Channel Studio in Salinas Drive when coincidentally I looked at my watch. It was 10-minutes just before 12 noon when it started to shake in the office of IMG’s Jo-en delas Peñas and after 6 seconds of being startled, we scampered out of the office and into the open road. I saw that the people from JY Square across the street also got out of the building. That tremor lasted some 20 seconds. I tried to text or call our friends, but then apparently the telecom carriers were flooded by people trying to call home or their families and we couldn’t reach anyone until 30 minutes later when either the telecom service resumed.

According to the US Geological Survey (USGS) and Phivolcs website, it was a 6.7 magnitude earthquake with the epicenter reported some 70 kilometers off the coast of Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental with the time marked at 11:49am. No wonder the quake was felt all over the Visayas and Northern Mindanao. I gathered from initial reports that a child was killed due to a collapsed wall in Dumaguete City.

Apparently there were two earthquakes that the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported yesterday. The first was a 4.1 magnitude earthquake of tectonic origin recorded off General Santos City shortly after midnight on Feb.6 with no report of any damage and the second, but much bigger one happened just before noon. From a geological point, I’m sure that these two earthquakes must be linked with the Philippine plate, which is why we already had earthquakes in Samar a few days ago.

I was already on the road when there an aftershock was experienced that resulted from that earthquake. I’ve been in Cebu all my life and let me say that it was one of the biggest and longest quakes that I have ever experienced. I can’t recall if that earthquake that struck Cebu years ago that caused deaths when the MetroBank building along Jones Ave. was stronger.

Now it is up to the Office of the Building Officials (OBO) in the metro cities of Cebu to come up with reports of any building damage that yesterday’s earthquake may have caused. It would be good to have an inventory of any buildings that may have been damaged due to that strong earthquake. Who knows, there could be buildings out there that may no longer be safe. I know that this entails a lot of inspection by the OBO, but it is a necessity.

Thank God, there were no reports of a tsunami that could have been caused by that earthquake. We are reminded that next month on March 11 is the 1st anniversary of the famous Tohoku Japanese 9.0 magnitude earthquake that devastated Northeastern Japan. But I heard that people in the downtown business district went into a panic mode. Perhaps it was a texted prank or a crazy radio commentator who played on the people’s gullibility. We should not allow panic to happen but some prankster made people believe that there was a tsunami coming. Who allowed this to happen should be thrown to jail for sowing confusion and fooling our people.

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I thought that by this time the story about the 29 World War II bombs found in Kawit Island (or what used to be the Kawit Island) would have died down already. However I couldn’t help but read The FREEMAN’s Monday editorial yesterday entitled “Bombing out the bomb story” wherein it suggests that the government has to make a serious effort to locate undetonated bombs where ever they can be found.

At this point, all I can say is, World War II ended 67 years ago in August 1945 with the unconditional surrender of the Imperial Japanese Forces in Ilihan, Sogod. Surely the issue of searching for undetonated bombs should have been looked into in those times and I’m sure that the officials of the City of Cebu most probably did that. However times have changed 67-years later.

The only military action that was recorded to have happened the Kawit Island was written in a book entitled “MacArthur’s Escape” written by George W. Smith in an action that happened April 8-9, 1941 when then Lieutenant John “Wildman” Bulkeley who led the PT-Boats that brought Gen. Douglas MacArthur to Cagayan de Oro then went to Cebu City to have their boats repaired and refitted in Morrison “Dad” Cleland’s shipyard in I think what used to be the Ponce Island, now the North Reclamation area.

But that action was a strafing attack by four Japanese floatplanes which ended with the burning PT boats beached in Kawit Island and abandoned by Lt. Bulkeley and his crew. There were no bombs dropped. Hence those bombs found in Kawit most probably were buried there for safe keeping since few people would go to Kawit. But now that Kawit is no longer an island, then as the The FREEMAN editorial suggests, they should send Army engineers to search for more bombs that may have been buried there.

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