ZAMBOANGA CITY, 8 March 2006 — Fears of undersea volcanic eruptions and threats of deadly tsunamis have sent hundreds of people fleeing their coastal villages in the southern Philippines, a official said yesterday.
Gov. Robert Lyndon Barbers of Surigao del Norte province said cell phone text messages about an impending volcanic eruptions and tsunamis have forced many people to flee their homes since Saturday.
“Many have already evacuated. They are afraid, but we told them there is no truth to the rumors of an impending underwater volcanic eruptions or tsunamis. We are telling them to return home,” Barbers said.
Barbers could not say the exact number of those who fled their homes, but claimed the exodus still continues in villages along the northeastern coast of Mindanao Island.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Philvolcs) said there were no reports of earthquakes in the southern region.
“We have no reports of earthquakes, either from Hawaii or Hong Kong (volcano observatories). And there can be no tsunami if there are no earthquakes,” said Philvolcs Director Renato Solidum.
Tsunamis usually occur in the Pacific Ocean following earthquakes of over magnitude 6.5. On Dec. 26, 2004, a 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra in Indonesia caused a tsunami with waves as high as 65 ft killed more than 200,000 across the Indian Ocean.
Although the Philippines was not affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami, the people of Mindanao had their own tsunami experience.
On August 16, 1976, a tsunami generated by a quake off Mindanao Island killed more than 10,000 people in the Moro Gulf region — coastal communities in the Sulu archipelago, Zamboanga Peninsula, Lanao provinces, North Cotabato, Maguindanao, and Sultan Kudarat provinces.
