Death toll rises to 55

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines  – As relief operations continued in the northern part of Negros Oriental, the number of deaths from the magnitude 6.9 earthquake has risen to 55.

This was the latest report from the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, which stated that of the 55 confirmed dead, 24 were in Guihulngan City, 12 in La Libertad town, 10 in Jimalalud, three each in Tayasan and Ayungon, two in Manjuyod and one in Bindoy.

Despite the joint retrieval operations by government and private groups to search for the missing victims, especially those buried in landslides in Brgy. Planas of Guihulngan and Brgy. Solonggon of La Libertad, the PDRRMC reported that 60 people still remained unaccounted for as of last count.

While humanitarian aid to quake victims have been ongoing in the past three weeks, only half of the total number of families and individuals affected have been served so far, due to inaccessibility to some areas in the 1st district of Negros Oriental.

The PDRRMC’s latest report showed a total of 63,363 families or 316,815 persons from 166 barangays in the nine LGUs of the 1st district have been reported displaced by the earthquake, said provincial information officer Adrian Sedillo.

Of this number, 37,000 families or 184,000 individuals have been served so far, he said.

A total of P41.7 million in relief goods have been distributed already to the earthquake victims. This consisted of P24-million worth of aid from the DSWD-7, P12.5 million from the different LGUs, and P5.1 million from different non-government and people’s organizations.

At least 15,000 houses have been destroyed by the earthquake, leaving some scientists to look into what they described as a blind thrust fault along the Tañon Strait between Cebu and Negros Islands.

As of this writing, aftershocks were still being felt in many areas in the north of Negros while a lot of homeless families were still staying at evacuation centers awaiting aid to rebuild their houses or relocate them. (FREEMAN)