Rescuers in General Santos City, Philippines, are tirelessly working to locate survivors after a powerful earthquake. The quake has left at least 37 people dead and injured hundreds more. Efforts have been focused on a collapsed commercial building where two people remained trapped.
Regional fire officer Edgar Tanawan leads the search. Rescuers have already saved two individuals from the rubble, though they found another victim deceased. Scanners have not yet detected signs of life from the remaining two trapped individuals.
It’s difficult to accept, as a mother, that my son is still trapped there,said Dioslinda Deluvio.
The 65-year-old mother expressed her longing to have her son retrieved for closure.
The earthquake struck early Monday morning near Sarangani province. It measured 7.8 in magnitude and prompted a tsunami warning in multiple countries. Tremors were felt strongly across Mindanao and as far as Manado, Indonesia, located 260 miles away.
Authorities are determined to prevent the death toll from rising as search operations continue. The city, home to over 700,000 residents, now faces a state of calamity with buildings collapsed and infrastructure damaged.
Damage assessment and restoration efforts are underway by disaster officials who aim to restore essential services like power and water. This catastrophe follows another significant quake eight months prior that caused 79 fatalities in central Cebu.
Schools, which had recently reopened, remain shut to ensure building safety. Rafaelito Alejandro of the Office of Civil Defense confirmed thousands of schools experienced varying levels of damage.
Video footage showed children fleeing a school collapse as the quake struck, illustrating the chaos. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology recorded 23 strong aftershocks, with the highest at magnitude 6.7.
Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa emphasized the need to ensure hospital safety and restore power quickly, highlighting that outages affect critical medical treatments. Temporary medical tents have been set up to treat patients in affected areas.