THE WORLD THIS WEEK Earthquake kills 1600 in Philippines
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from August 1976.
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Most of the deaths were caused when tidal waves up to 24 feet high crashed into towns and villages in the south of the country. The waves spread devastation along 500 miles of coast facing the Celebes Sea. In the port of Cotabato two four-storey hotels, a college, and a three-story hotels, a college, and a three-story department store were wrecked. Thousands of people camped in the open as aftershocks shook the area.
President Marcus decalred a "state of calamity" in the Southern part of Mindanao, the second largest island in the Philippines, and the Sulu. Archipelago which stretches towards Borneo. HIGHER TOLL FEARED At least three cities and more than a dozen coastal towns in the Mindanao-Sulu region, 500 miles south of Manila, were scenes of devastation.
A combined count by the National Diaster Coordinating Centre, the Social Welfare Department and the Red Cross showed a death toll of 1,655 with the figure expected to rise.
Rescue equipment was flown to the disaster area where many people were trapped in wrecked buildings. In some places in Cotabato, their limbs could be seen protruding from rubble.
The waves caused by the first shock centred beneath the Celebes Sea about 100 miles from the Mindanao coast swept away houses more than 100 yards inland.
