ZAMBOANGA CITY, 5 January 2005 — A tsunami scare that swept remote coastal villages in this southern Philippine port city has sent some residents fleeing to “safer” grounds.
On Friday, hundreds of residents evacuated the coastal village of Cawit in the western coast as rumors, buffeted by the deadly tsunamis that killed tens of thousands of people in the Indian Ocean, spread like wildfire that the southern Philippines was next to be hit.
Officials said hundreds of villagers also fled their homes on Sunday in Sangali district, about 40 kilometers east of Zamboanga City, after cell phone text messages (SMS) warned them of an incoming tsunami.
The regional Official of Civil Defense said it was also verifying a report that at least 8 people were killed when huge waves battered a small coral island off Tawi-Tawi province south of Zamboanga.
Ade Atilano, director of the OCD), said big waves swept the remote island on Sunday killing mostly fishermen. He said the police also reported the incident, but gave no further details. “Definitely it was not a tsunami and the reports said eight people had died,” Atilano told Arab News. “We are still awaiting more reports about this incident.”
Fears of tsunamis in the Philippines are not without basis, especially in the southern coasts of Mindanao where memories of a deadly earthquake are still fresh.
According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, tsunamis spawned by a magnitude 7.9 quake off the Moro Gulf on Aug. 17, 1976 slammed into the coasts of the Cotabato and Zamboanga regions, killing more than 7,000 villagers and injuring close to 10,000 more people. Close to 90,000 were rendered homeless, official records said.
Officials said everyone was caught unprepared because the temblor struck at midnight.
